Carlos Alcaraz reaches first grand slam semifinal after marathon, late-night finish against Jannik Sinner
Carlos Alcaraz reached his first-ever grand slam semifinal after an unprecedented last-set marathon in which he was 0-for-7 with 24 game points.
He survived a match-point rally in the second set, but he never had an answer for Sinner’s power play at the net. The crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium were roaring when Alcaraz fought back to make it 20-14. He had a match point on Sinner in the fifth game of the night. But it was Sinner two-putting the ball to take Alcaraz’s match point in that game. That put Alcaraz in a situation where he had to make his best play to win the match.
“He came up to hit a big serve,” Alcaraz said after the match. “I thought I had him, but I made a mistake in my serve, so it was a tough decision.
“He’s a great guy. I played with him in Spain, and I thought I had a match point with my first serve and he got it back. Then I made a mistake and he got it back. Then I made another mistake, and he got it back. He’s a great player.”
Alcaraz’s first set victory came by 20-8 and it appeared that Sinner might make it to his second-set tiebreaker as he served at 12-5 and Alcaraz held at 13-1 in the final set. It didn’t work out that way, though, which proved to be Alcaraz’s undoing.
Alcaraz will face Germany’s Andreas Seppi in the first round on Monday in Toronto, with the winner meeting top seed Novak Djokovic on Monday in New York.
Alcaraz was playing his first grand slam final since he lost to American John Isner in the 2010 U.S. Open quarterfinals. He had played a few early major finals, including three at the 2009 Davis Cup, but he
