Since the start of 2017 as men’s tennis Big Three won 22 of the 26 Grand Slams, the next-in-line hopefuls were made to seemingly, and patiently, wait for their turn.
With Roger Federer retired, 37-year-old Rafael Nadal away and set to join his Swiss friend next year and Novak Djokovic, 36, not sure “how many more Slams I’ll have”, the twenty-somethings challengers could’ve finally sensed a shot at upgrading their CVs.
Enter — like he has an awful lot of times over the last couple of years — Carlos Alcaraz.
The 20-year-old Spaniard is not only measuring up to the chasing pack, led by Russian Daniil Medvedev, Germany’s Alexander Zverev and Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, but also starting to race past them.
Defending champion Alcaraz defeated Zverev 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 in the quarter-finals of the US Open in Wednesday’s night session to set up a semi-final showdown with 2021 winner Medvedev on Friday. What do Alcaraz’s semi-final opponent and Alcaraz’s quarter-final conquest have in common this season? They’ve both been beaten by Alcaraz twice so far this year without getting one past him.
Alcaraz’s victory on Wednesday got him level on the head-to-head count with Zverev (3-3). The Spanish sensation has snuck past Medvedev (2-1) and sailed past Tsitsipas (5-0).
Significantly, Alcaraz is beginning to elevate his presence while being pitted against them in majors. Alcaraz has stood in the way of Medvedev (Wimbledon semi-final), Zverev (US Open quarter-final) and Tsitsipas (French Open quarter-final) in Grand Slams this year, all across different surfaces and in the second week of Slams. That’s a change from 2021, when Medvedev beat the teen at Wimbledon and 2022, when Zverev outlasted the teen at Roland Garros.
Now 20, Alcaraz, the 2022 US Open and 2023 Wimbledon champion, already has more Grand Slams titles than Medvedev, Zverev and Tsitsipas combined.
“I played Novak (Djokovic) in Cincinnati (ahead of the US Open). I played Carlos here. I think they’re very similar in level of the game,” Zverev said after his defeat on Wednesday. “There’s some things Novak does better and some things Carlos does better. They’re on a level of their own at the moment. Other guys gotta catch up. It’s as simple as that.”
Couldn’t quite catch up with Federer, Nadal and Djokovic? Now catch up with Alcaraz.
Zverev tried doing that on court under lights at the Arthur Ashe Stadium on Wednesday, but Alcaraz kept a distance. Even though while not running his absolute best race on the day.
At the start of the sixth game of their quarter-final, Alcaraz took a little step to his left but the lanky German’s 120mph rocket went to his right. Alcaraz lunged the other way to just about meet the racquet on his return, sprinted across the baseline, stretched to his left and pulled out a backhand passing winner on the run. This, after he’d drifted a couple of forehands wide from the baseline and off the drop shot in the previous couple of games.
This wasn’t Alcaraz flaunting his free-flowing fashion, like he did in his Round of 16 against Matteo Arnaldi. This was Alcaraz playing a bit patchy — he had more unforced errors (34) than winners (29) — yet solid enough to not be shaken by Zverev, physically hungover from his late-night marathon duel with Jannik Sinner.
Alcaraz was able to handle the German’s serving threat (Zverev won 73% and just 28% points on his first and second serves, respectively) and his play and poise on the big points (Alcaraz saved each of his five break points).
“When I am facing break point, I try not to think about this. I try to think about it as a normal point,” Alcaraz said. “Try to do the things that I was doing well… If I can return (and) volley, I do it. If I can go to the net in the second ball, I do it.”
Alcaraz went to the net 35 times and won 28 of those points. It’s the kind of all-court game that Zverev had few answers to. Similar was the case with Medvedev, who stands between Alcaraz and a potential final with Djokovic, when the two last met a couple of months ago on the grass courts of the All England Club.
The Russian loves to park himself and engage in flat exchanges from deep behind the baseline, which the Spaniard happily exploited with his dazzlying drops and clever court positioning.
“The last matches that I played against Daniil, I played a perfect tactical game,” said Alcaraz, who also beat Medvedev in the hard-court Indian Wells final this year before the Wimbledon semi-final. “I did all the things that I had to do against him pretty well, so I think my game suits pretty well against that type of opponent.”
