Carlos Alcaraz has broken his ceiling in Melbourne. The Spaniard, for the first time in his career, is in the semifinals of the Australian Open after … defeat Alex de Minaur 7-5, 6-2 and 6-1. After five games, he still doesn’t know what it’s like to lose a set. He had only reached this round intact on one occasion, in the last US Open, and ended up winning the tournament. His last obstacle before the final will be Alexander Zverev, an old acquaintance.
It is curious because Alcaraz, not even playing against an Australian, in fact, the best Australian of the moment, feels the rejection of the public. Neither when he celebrated a point, nor when he made a mistake did he see how the stands fell on him. His charisma and the affection he has earned is such that people respect him to the fullest. And the first set was one of those in which the atmosphere could have easily gotten heated. Not because of controversies, but because of a high level from both tennis players, which caused alternatives, script twists and a sublime ending.
Alcaraz came out more energized, with a 3-0 lead from which De Miñaur did not take long to recover. The Australian equalized at 3-3 and had a 0-30 lead that indicated that the tables were going to change. Samuel López told him from his bench: “Stop failing” and the Spaniard took it to heart. He lifted the dangerous situation and won the next two games. At 5-3 and serve he got hooked again, lost his serve and needed to stabilize the match again.
De Minaur was having a fantastic match, running from side to side and doing a lot of damage with his parallel blows, but as it is already a classic of his career, he is missing a winning blow. He was lacking in his first match against Alcaraz in Barcelona, when he lost two match points, and he was lacking here. With 6-5 against, the pupil of Adolfo Gutiérrez and Lleyton Hewitt solved a 0-40 that meant three set points against. When the fourth arrived, the best exchange of the match took place, more than twenty blows in which De Miñaur did not finish and it was Alcaraz who was saved on the line.
In 57 minutes, Alcaraz had taken a set in which De Minaur had been superb, but that level, without the finish, is of no use.
The sinking of De Minaur
Although this hour of tennis heralded a spectacular duel, the disappointment of losing that first set overwhelmed De Miñaur. The Australian spent the rest of the match at a much lower level and that is impossible. After losing the second set (6-2), he began to tilt his head, ask his bench for explanations and consider the match lost.
Alcaraz also showed his sportsmanship and, when De Minaur was given a warning for taking too long to serve, the Spaniard approached the chair umpire and explained that it was his fault for not being prepared and that she should remove the warning.
After a 2024 in which Zverev beat him and a 2025 in which Djokovic stopped him, Alcaraz is in the Melbourne semifinals for the first time. His rival will be the same as two years ago, a Zverev who was able to surprise Learner Tien 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-1 and 7-6 (3). The German, who has ten Grand Slam semifinals without ever winning one, has lost three of four matches against Alcaraz after that duel in Australia two years ago. His only victory came on the surface that is most favorable to him, the ATP Finals in Turin in 2024. If Alcaraz beat him, at 22 years old he will be one victory away from becoming the youngest in history to conquer the Big Four.
