The world N.1 had never shone on grass while he is already a terror on clay and hard. This year, he also asserts his game on grass: with his title at Queen's, Alcaraz won a tenth consecutive match on this surface by beating in the quarterfinals the Danish Holger Rune (6th in the world) 7-6 (7/3), 6-4, 6-4.
"I was very nervous at the beginning, playing a quarter at Wimbledon and against Rune... But when you step on the court, there are no more friends. You have to be focused on yourself and I think I did it very well," said the 20-year-old Spaniard, who had never been past the knockout stages at Wimbledon.
He thus becomes the youngest player to reach the semi-finals of the London Major since Novak Djokovic in 2007 (also 20 years old but a few days younger than him: the Serb was born on May 22 and Alcaraz on May 5).
"I'm playing at a very good level. I didn't expect to play so well on this surface. It's crazy!" said the winner of the last US Open.
The Medvedev obstacle
He has already announced that he wants to play for the title on Sunday against Novak Djokovic. To get there, he has only one obstacle: the Russian Daniil Medvedev (3rd) who, too, managed the best Wimbledon of his career.
While he had never before gone beyond the eighth, reached in 2021 before being banned from tournament last year, the 27-year-old Russian bombarded his American opponent Christopher Eubanks (43rd) with 52 winning shots, including 28 aces (for only 13 direct faults), to win 6-4, 1-6, 4-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-1.
"After the first set, I would have liked to avoid a fifth set but, at the end of the third, I was hoping that we would play it," joked the Russian who conceded 74 winning shots from his opponent, uninhibited while at 27, he played for the first time at Wimbledon. And that he had only reached the second round of a Grand Slam tournament twice (US Open 2022 and Australia 2023), without ever going further.
The men's semifinals, the second between Jannik Sinner (8th) and Novak Djokovic (2nd) who hopes to equal the absolute record of 24 Grand Slam titles, are both scheduled for Friday.
Jabeur's Revenge
Tunisia's Ons Jabeur after beating Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina in the quarterfinals of the Wimbledon tournament on July 13, 2023 in London © SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP
Wednesday was also decided the second semifinal of the women's draw: Ons Jabeur (6th) took revenge on the Kazakh Elena Rybakina (3rd) who had beaten her in the final last year, and will face the world N.2 Aryna Sabalenka to try to return to the final. The other half will pit Elina Svitolina against Marketa Vondrousova. The two will be played as early as Thursday.
"If I could exchange this match with last year's," said the 28-year-old Tunisian, after beating Rybakina 6-7 (5/7), 6-4, 6-1.
Her first task was to tame the serve of the great Kazakh (1.84 m) who started this quarter with the record of 342 aces since the beginning of the season, including 26 at Wimbledon in four matches. Since losing the very first set of the tournament, Rybakina had never been broken again and had to defend only seven break balls.
Jabeur shattered those stats by taking his serve five times and offering himself a total of nine break balls.
The match against Sabalenka, who clearly dominated the American Madison Keys (18th) 6-2, 6-4, is a bit the same as the Belarusian, winner of the Australian Open, also relies on a big serve and a power play.
© 2023 AFP