Carlos Alcaraz wasn’t facing some tomato can Wednesday night. He wasn’t up against a qualifier or an unseeded opponent.
He was in the U.S. Open quarterfinals against Alexander Zverev, the 12th-ranked man in the world, who has reached the semifinals in five of the last 10 Grand Slam tournaments in which he played and was coming off of an upset of No. 6 Jannik Sinner.
It didn’t matter.
Zverev was strong in the first set and arguably outplayed Alcaraz.
But the top-ranked Spaniard and rising superstar found a way to break Zverev late in that set, and once he did, it was over for the German.
Alcaraz served beautifully and was typically dominant from the baseline to the net, moving onto the semifinals with a 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 victory at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Alcaraz will meet No. 3 Daniil Medvedev on Friday in the semifinals, as he looks to become the first man to repeat as champion at Flushing Meadows since Roger Federer won five in a row from 2004-08.
Carlos Alcaraz celebrates his quarterfinal win at the U.S. Open on Wednesday night. Jason Szenes/NY Post“Of course I am playing for myself, playing for my team. … I try to make the people enjoy watching tennis, watching the matches,” Alcaraz said during his on-court interview. “I’ve been trying to do different shots that probably the crowd are not used to seeing in the matches. … That’s what I’m trying — to put a show on.”
Zverev could not break the 20-year-old Alcaraz, whiffing on five opportunities.
Zverev had double break points while up 2-1 in the third set, but Alcaraz answered with a drop shot winner and a big serve to eliminate them.
Alcaraz, meanwhile, converted all four of his break-point chances in the one-sided, two hour and 29-minute match.
He is the second men’s player 20 years of age or younger to reach three Grand Slam semifinals in the same season in the Open Era, joining Novak Djokovic, who ddid it in 2007.
Earlier in the tournament, Zverev pushed back at the narrative that an Alcaraz-Djokovic final was inevitable.
He mentioned the other strong players on the tour as capable of halting that showdown.
Carlos Alcaraz will face Daniil Medvedev in the semis. Jason Szenes/NY Post“It’s natural for the media to find rivalries, I think. But I think, as I said last time — Novak said it very well — there are other players that can play in the draw, there are other players that both of those guys have lost to,” Zverev said.
Zverev had his opportunity and he couldn’t come close to slowing down Alcaraz.
Maybe Medvedev, who knocked off eighth-seeded Russian Andrey Rublev in straight sets earlier Wednesday, will have a better chance.
More likely, it will come down to Alcaraz against Djokovic on Sunday afternoon, just as it did at Wimbledon in July.
“I think they are at a level of their own at the moment,” Zverev said.
