Alexander Zverev, after cutting off Jannik Sinner whose reunion with Carlos Alcaraz everyone was waiting for, wanted to be the one to torpedo the long-awaited US Open final between the world No. 1 and Novak Djokovic. But the German was powerless against the Spaniard on Wednesday night in the quarter-finals (6-3, 6-2, 6-4). And it will be necessary to count on others to prevent a final between ”Carlitos” and ”Nole”. It could be Daniil Medvedev, who will struggle with Alcaraz in the semi-finals, or Ben Shelton, expected against Djokovic.
With this new success, Alcaraz now has twelve rank victories at Flushing Meadows. Defending champion, the Spaniard is going through the tournament without major difficulty and only Dan Evans in the third round has taken a set from him for the moment. Against Zverev, he was upset at times, like the first set and the third where he didn’t always deliver his best tennis. But Zverev failed to take advantage of these openings.
The lesson of realism
In the first act, he wasted his two break points at 3-3 on backhand fouls. Quite the opposite of Alcaraz who was able to accelerate on the opposing service by emerging on three monumental returns and who converted his only opportunity of the set. The protege of Juan Carlos Ferrero knew how to be clinical when it really counted. First set in his pocket, he hit back again and released a magnificent cross backhand before driving the point home, still on the backhand side, to achieve the break.
Same thing a little later, when he slapped two forehand slaps that made the stadium roar to afford a break point. Behind, Zverev messed up on the service (double fault) and let the Spaniard fly away. The latter was in difficulty on his service after several faults? He restored the situation on a serve and volley, which he drew a little later when Zverev had break point in the third. And when the serve and volley failed, it was the amortization that sent the 12th player in the world back to his impotence.
0/5
Zverev’s break point stats. He did not convert any unlike Alcaraz who hit the mark on his four chances.
A lesson in realism against which the German, who had taken a medical time-out at the end of the second set and lacked juice, could only bow after conceding his serve one last time at 4-4 in the third set. For the third time in a row after Roland-Garros and Wimbledon, Alcaraz finds itself in the last four in the Grand Slam. He will find there a Daniil Medvedev who has been particularly successful for him the last two times he has met him, whether in the final in Indian Wells (6-3, 6-2) or on the way to his title in London (6 -3, 6-3, 6-3 in half, already).
