Alcaraz, Carlos (2003- )

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      On the Quiet Hardcourts in Spain, Carlos Alcaraz’s Star Was Already Shining

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      No matter how clear the potential, you never truly know what a tennis player is capable of until they have to fight for the biggest points on the biggest occasions.In December, when I visited Carlos Alcaraz and his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, at the academy where they are based in the stark countryside of Villena, Spain, both calmly and reasonably explained that the goal for 2022 was to break into the top 15.So much for calm and reason.On Sunday, Alcaraz became a Grand Slam champion by winning the men’s singles title at the U.S. Open and, at 19, the youngest No. 1 player since the ATP rankings were created nearly 50 years ago.In December, Alcaraz trained on a hardcourt with Ferrero near the back of the academy grounds with just a few people observing as they picked up their own balls amid the peace and quiet.So much for peace and quiet.Sunday’s four-set victory over Casper Ruud of Norway was secured in a sold-out Arthur Ashe Stadium with the roars of nearly 24,000 fans rumbling off the closed retractable roof as Alcaraz lunged and leaped straight into the winner’s circle and the collective consciousness.To be honest, a star was already born.Alcaraz ticked that big box quite some time ago when he upset the likes of Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal this season on his acrobatic, gravity-defying way to trophies on tour and early acclaim. He sensed after winning the Miami Open final over Ruud in early April that Grand Slam titles were within his reach.But no matter how clear the potential and how dynamic the game, you never truly know what a tennis player is capable of until they have to fight for the biggest points on the biggest occasions.Sunday was one of those moments, and now he and we know for certain that Alcaraz is the mega-talent that men’s tennis was anxiously hoping would surface with the Big Three — Nadal, Djokovic and Roger Federer — riding toward the fading light.“It’s crazy for me,” he said on Sunday night. “I never thought I was going to achieve something like this at 19 years old. Everything came so fast.”Alcaraz, as truly exceptional players do, has arrived at some of the usual way stations on the road to success and stepped on the accelerator pedal instead of pulling over.Pete Sampras was also 19 when he rode his supreme serve and running forehand to win the 1990 U.S. Open men’s singles title. Nadal, Alcaraz’s fellow Spaniard, was 19, too, when he arrived at his first French Open in 2005 and ran the table against his elders without even being pushed to a fifth set.Alcaraz found a way to attack when threatened rather than playing the waiting game.Michelle V. Agins/The New York TimesAlcaraz now belongs in the same paragraph even if he never made it look remotely that easy in New York. He had to save a match point against Jannik Sinner of Italy in the quarterfinals. That was part of him winning three five-set matches in a row that finished near midnight or well after and kept him from going to sleep until much of the city was starting to wake up.And all that was just to reach the final, where a letdown would have been entirely understandable. But Alcaraz was having none of it, even if there were some moments in the second and third sets where his energy levels seemed to dip and his full-cut groundstrokes lacked some of their customary punch.But as champions do, he found a way, and as not all champions do, he did so by attacking when threatened rather than playing the waiting game.Serving in the 12th game of the third set, he saved one set point by approaching the net and hitting a deft angled forehand volley winner. He saved the next by serving and volleying and finishing off the point with an overhead shot. He won the game with a lunging backhand lob that sent Ruud scrambling back to the baseline, where he hit a tweener that Alcaraz, back at the net, punched away to force a tiebreaker with the crowd giving him nothing but positive feedback.There is no need to bury the Big Three just yet.Federer’s glory days are very likely done at age 41, and he has not played in more than a year. But Nadal, at 36, won two major titles this year and has had a marvelous, reaffirming season. Djokovic just won Wimbledon and, despite being unvaccinated against Covid-19, looks very likely to be granted permission by the Australian government to defend the old guard against Alcaraz and the new wave in January at the Australian Open, which Djokovic has won a record nine times.But Sunday’s final and this U.S. Open as a whole sent a clear message: men’s tennis will have a strong heartbeat long after its long-running icons are gone.This was appointment viewing, too, a day when two hungry young men were chasing their first major title and the No. 1 ranking at the same time.Alcaraz not only won the U.S. Open trophy, he took top spot in the ATP rankings.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesThis was a first, and what made it better yet was that this was big-time all-court tennis, brimming with risk and reward as roars of approval and occasional disbelief rumbled through the Thunderdome of Ashe Stadium.Alcaraz, down to earth off the court, is a human highlight reel with a racket in hand: ideally suited to a social-media age where bite-size brilliance is the coin of the realm. But Ruud, less obviously charismatic, showed plenty of panache himself, hunting down drop shots, ripping bold forehand winners, countering Alcaraz’s injections of pace and hustling to keep points and his chances alive.He also showed welcome and remarkable sportsmanship, calling a double bounce on himself in the second set that the chair umpire had missed, thereby awarding the point to Alcaraz, who clearly appreciated the gesture.It was a final played in that sort of Corinthian spirit despite all that was at stake.Ruud was close to turning it, closer than the four-set score line will indicate, but he lost his edge and his rhythm when he needed it most: mistiming shot after shot in the third-set tiebreaker that gave Alcaraz fresh hope and a much clearer view of the finish line.“He has such an incredible fighting spirit,” said Ruud, still searching for his first major title after losing to Nadal in straight sets at this year’s French Open final. Ruud is well placed to note the common thread between the two Spanish champions, born nearly 17 years apart. Alcaraz might have grown up admiring Federer’s flair and net-rushing skills, but like Nadal, he clearly relishes the fight as he proved again and again in New York. He delights not just in having won a match but in the process that leads to winning.“It is what makes Carlos special,” Ferrero said during my visit in December. “Many players like to compete but not so many look forward to playing the biggest points. Carlos does, and I think that is a very good sign for the future.”Ferrero said he sensed some of Alcaraz’s joy was missing earlier this summer at the Masters 1000 tournaments in Montreal and Mason, Ohio. Ferrero was intent on recapturing it and urged him to be true to his attacking instincts, to approach the net off short balls and to use his full range of skills. Mission accomplished. “I came here just to enjoy,” Alcaraz said. “To smile on court and to enjoy playing tennis.”Ferrero, who clinched the No. 1 ranking by reaching the final of the 2003 U.S. Open won by Andy Roddick, remains an unexcitable sort, but even he was struggling to keep his composure down the stretch on Sunday, extending his palms to the team to maintain calm while his strained expression was sending a rather different message.Who could blame him? He sensed something special in Alcaraz when he saw him in his early teens at a low-level professional tournament in Spain: He saw him hit drop shots and rush the net without fear; sensed his ability to adapt his game to the opposition; sensed that he had extra gears on his extra gears.But he also had a long-term view in mind.“Above all, he told me not to be in a hurry,” Alcaraz explained in December. “That I’m going to get the experience and play the tournaments and learn the ropes, and that there’s no need to get ahead of the process. I need to live all these moments and not be in a hurry for the results right away.”So much for not being in a hurry. More

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      Carlos Alcaraz Is Favorite Against Casper Ruud in U.S. Open Men’s Singles Final

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      Sunday’s match is not only a battle for the U.S. Open men’s singles title. It will also determine the next world No. 1, and whoever wins will rise to the top spot for the first time.It was nearly 2 a.m. at the U.S. Open (of course it was), and Carlos Alcaraz was cheerfully giving a news conference after his latest five-set thriller.“Sometimes you have to come up with a little magic, you know?” he said.We do know, and though we might not have been 100 percent certain before Alcaraz returned to New York for his second U.S. Open, the evidence is overwhelming now after his bewitching run to the men’s singles final, in which he will face Casper Ruud on Sunday.Alcaraz, just 19, has made the spectacular rally and the acrobatic shot seem routine under extraordinary pressure. He has done it with the crowd of nearly 24,000 in Arthur Ashe Stadium supporting him, saving a match point against Jannik Sinner in the quarterfinals. He has worked the same kind of magic with a majority of the crowd against him, as it was on Friday night when he played Frances Tiafoe.But even Tiafoe, an American in the midst of a breakthrough of his own, was left either wide-eyed or covering his mouth in disbelief at some of the winners that Alcaraz conjured on the run. Alcaraz is at his most dangerous and entertaining when he is on the scramble.Against Sinner in the quarterfinals, he hit a behind-the-back shot in midair and went on to win the point. Against Tiafoe in the semifinals, Alcaraz came up with lunging angles, forehand passing shots off balls that seemed already out of reach, and produced topspin lobs from deeply compromised positions that landed beyond Tiafoe’s reach directly on the baseline.“Obviously I would have loved to win tonight, but I think tennis won tonight,” Tiafoe said after drying his eyes and putting the transcendent tournament and often marvelous match in perspective.Alcaraz has played three five-setters in a row.Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesBut the tennis is not quite finished, and Alcaraz has not yet taken the final step in his journey from Spanish prodigy to Grand Slam champion.One more match awaits, and the final against Ruud, a 23-year-old Norwegian, will not only be a duel for the U.S. Open title. It will also be a match for the No. 1 ranking.Whoever wins will rise to the top spot for the first time: an unprecedented scenario in a major final since the ATP computer rankings were created in 1973.An Alcaraz loss to Tiafoe would have guaranteed Ruud the No. 1 ranking, even without taking the title, but Ruud said he preferred it this way, calling it “the ideal situation” and “what’s most fair.”It certainly adds an extra layer of import to the occasion.“I always dreamed of being No. 1,” Alcaraz said. “Obviously to be No. 1 without winning a Slam is complicated to do, but since I was little, it was always No. 1.”Now, he has a chance to achieve both on Sunday. It might seem premature that Alcaraz or Ruud reach the summit considering Rafael Nadal won the first two majors of the year and Novak Djokovic won Wimbledon. But Nadal and Djokovic have missed big chunks of this season (and Nadal missed the last few months of 2021 as well).Djokovic got no ranking points for his Wimbledon victory after points were stripped from the tournament because of its ban on Russian and Belarusian players. Djokovic was also unable to play in the Australian Open, the U.S. Open or four Masters 1000 events in North America because he remained unvaccinated for Covid-19. In the meantime, Alexander Zverev, a German contender for the top spot, has not played on tour since tearing ankle ligaments in the semifinals of the French Open in June.But that is hardly the fourth-ranked Alcaraz’s or seventh-ranked Ruud’s doing. They have been durable and consistently successful (they are also both vaccinated).Ruud is the first Norwegian man to reach a U.S. Open singles final. Alcaraz is the youngest man to reach a Grand Slam singles final since Nadal at the French Open in 2005, and he is also the youngest man to reach a U.S. Open singles final since Pete Sampras in 1990. Nadal and Sampras both won the titles at age 19.Fans watching as Ruud defeated Khachanov in the semifinal Friday.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesAlcaraz deserves to be the favorite on Sunday even if Ruud has the edge in experience. Ruud has already played one major final, losing the French Open final in June in straight sets as Nadal claimed his 14th singles title at Roland Garros (which still makes me shake my head).“He obviously gave me a good beating,” Ruud said. “After the final, I said if I ever reach one again, I hope it’s not Rafa on the other side of the court in Roland Garros, because it’s sort of an impossible task, I think, for any player. I’m happy that it’s not Rafa on clay.”But Alcaraz is no walk in Central Park. Like many Spaniards, he learned the game on clay, but the hardcourt looks like his best surface. Alcaraz likes to take big cuts and hit the ball very early, and the true bounce of a hardcourt allows him more precision. It also suits his movement, allowing him to push off and change direction in a flash.“I never played a guy who moves as well as him,” said the 24-year-old Tiafoe, who is also one of the quickest players on tour.Alcaraz’s ability to extend rallies puts tremendous pressure on the opposition to try to play closer to the lines, which lured Tiafoe into errors on Friday, as it had lured many before him.Ruud, the son of the former ATP professional Christian Ruud, knows the perils. He is 0-2 against Alcaraz and lost to him, 7-5, 6-4, in the final of the Miami Open on a hardcourt in April.“If I want to beat Carlos, I’ll need to play very precise with all the shots that I hit and especially try to keep him a little bit further back in the court, to play with good depth and length on all my shots,” Ruud said. “If he steps in, he can do anything with the ball. He can rip a winner. He also has great touch with the drop shot. I think he has one of the best drop shots on tour.”Consistent depth might limit the drop shots, but mere depth does not keep Alcaraz from ripping groundstroke winners. He will punish a shot that lacks punch or slice crisp enough to skid low.But Ruud is a smooth and increasingly complete player with a devastating forehand of his own and an improving serve. Unlike Alcaraz, he has played just one five-setter in this U.S. Open.Ruud has already played one major final, losing at the French Open in June.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesAlcaraz has played three five-setters in a row, all of which finished late or ridiculously late. He beat Marin Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion, at 2:23 a.m. on Tuesday; he beat Sinner at 2:50 a.m. on Thursday in what was the latest finish ever at the U.S. Open; and he then beat Tiafoe shortly before midnight on Friday.Alcaraz, in only his second full season on tour, is now 8-1 in five-set matches and 5-0 at Flushing Meadows.Though he showed no signs of slowing down on Friday night, he has played significantly more tennis in New York this year than Ruud.He has also played more highlight-reel tennis than anybody else, even the departed Australian Nick Kyrgios, and with a positive energy and sportsmanlike attitude that make him a much less conflicted viewing experience than Kyrgios.Alcaraz and Ruud, who has also trained in Spain, are on friendly terms, and it would be quite a shock if their final were anything but family fare.“It makes me happy to transmit good values to the young,” Alcaraz said.A Spanish reporter pointed out that Alcaraz was still rather young himself.“In tennis, you can mature quickly,” he said. “At tournaments, perhaps I feel a bit older, with more responsibilities, let’s say. But once I’m at home with my family, my friends and the people I have known since I was little, I feel like a 19-year-old kid.”However he feels in New York, if he wins on Sunday, Alcaraz will be the youngest No. 1 in ATP history. More

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      Carlos Alcaraz Outlasts Frances Tiafoe to Reach the US Open Final

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      Nearly every year now, it seems, the U.S. Open becomes a life-changing event.Last year a British teenager, a few months removed from her high school graduation, showed up in New York for the qualifying tournament in late August. Three weeks later, Emma Raducanu left the city as a Grand Slam champion and global sensation.This time around, Frances Tiafoe, an electric 24-year-old who has long been filled with unrealized upside, took the journey from virtual unknown to a player who could draw the former first lady Michelle Obama and the actor Jamie Foxx out to watch him.Tiafoe brought his remarkable story: He is the son of immigrants from Sierra Leone, his father a maintenance worker at a local tennis center, where coaches discovered his little boy hitting balls against a wall. Now Tiafoe was bidding to become the first American man since Andy Roddick to make the U.S. Open final. Already he was the first American man to make the semifinals of this tournament in 16 years.Another two wins would have been ground-shifting for the sport in America, akin to Serena Williams’s first Grand Slam title at this tournament 23 years ago, and coming a little more than a week after Williams played what was likely her last match in Arthur Ashe Stadium, in front of a screaming throng of nearly 24,000 fans.“I wanted to be here on Sunday holding the cup,” Tiafoe said. “I had it in my head.”But Tiafoe ran into Carlos Alcaraz on Friday night, the 19-year-old sensation from Spain who now seems poised to be the one to have his life changed by the U.S. Open. Alcaraz, who somehow found enough reserves to come back after winning a quarterfinal match that lasted more than five hours and didn’t end until nearly 3 a.m. Thursday, proved to be too much for Tiafoe, prevailing in five sets, 6-7 (6), 6-3, 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-3.“Amazing to be able to fight for big things,” Alcaraz said.Alcaraz, 19, chased down balls in every corner.Michelle V. Agins/The New York TimesFrances Tiafoe, 24, matched Alcaraz’s power.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesIt took nearly everything Alcaraz had. He had played roughly 10 hours of tennis in his previous two matches, which included 10 grueling sets. Alcaraz skipped practice altogether Thursday, and hit for just 30 minutes before the match Friday.Whatever psychic and physical energy that saved, he needed all of it for a battle that had him down, then even, then coasting, then clawed back by an opponent desperate not to cede the stage. Then in the last set he was up once more, and then all even again.The crowd rode every wave, with the match sounding like a New York Rangers hockey game as fans bellowed “Let’s go, Tiafoe!” — and then shifting to something like a soccer match in Madrid, as choruses of “Olé, Olé, Olé, Olé” rang through the stands, only to turn back into a Rangers game again.When it was finally finished, just before midnight, 4 hours 18 minutes after it began, Alcaraz had become the first teenage man to reach a Grand Slam final since Rafael Nadal won his first French Open in 2005. That was the first of 22 Nadal has captured in his career. If Alcaraz beats Casper Ruud of Norway on Sunday, he will rise to No. 1 in the world rankings, and who knows how many more Grand Slams he will win.He finished off Tiafoe with a magical lob to get to triple match point, and he needed all three, with Tiafoe finally netting one last backhand. Tiafoe and Alcaraz hugged in the middle of the court, and when they separated, Alcaraz pointed at Tiafoe, urging the fans to let him hear them one last time.“I gave it everything I had,” Tiafoe said, before telling Alcaraz what a privilege it had been to share this stage with him. Then he pledged to come back and beat him here one day and win this thing. He pointed to the former first lady on the way out.Tiafoe got off to a shaky start, missing early on his dangerous first serve and lofting his second serve as slowly as 75 miles per hour.Fortunately for Tiafoe, he was facing an opponent who looked like he had barely rested after his marathon quarterfinal match. Alcaraz struggled to find his rhythm early on and couldn’t take advantage of Tiafoe’s nerves.Slowly, both players settled in. After a half-hour, they were doing what they do best. Tiafoe banged away with his serve and met every bit of Alcaraz’s power. Alcaraz began to chase down balls that most players would not bother with, but when he arrived he was rarely in position to do much with them. Tiafoe got his first chance to win the set while leading 6-5, with Alcaraz serving, and then earned four more chances when the set moved to a tiebreaker.Tiafoe won two tiebreakers, bringing his tiebreaker record to 8-0 this tournament.Michelle V. Agins/The New York TimesOn the fifth set point, Alcaraz finally cracked, double-faulting. Tiafoe started for his chair, then paused to look at the fans and soak in the love they were giving him. As he got to his chair, he glanced up at himself on the big screen at the top of the stadium and nodded.Tiafoe had just won his 16th set out of 17 he had played in the tournament. Facing an opponent running on fumes who had just played for more than an hour and had nothing to show for it, he had every reason to believe his journey had a long way to go.Alcaraz, though, is different than anyone Tiafoe had faced during the first 10 days of the tournament, even last Monday, when he became the first American born after 1989 to beat Nadal in a Grand Slam. Nadal had played little since tearing an abdominal muscle at Wimbledon and could not summon his usual power and stamina.From the start, so many of Alcaraz’s balls found the outside edges of the sidelines and the back of the baseline, leaving Tiafoe wondering if the electronic line-calling machine could possibly be right. Like a pitcher with late movement on his fastball, Alcaraz hit shots that looked like they would sail wide and long but suddenly darted into a corner.Balls that don’t come back against other players come back when Alcaraz is on the other side of the net. There is not an inch of the court that seems out of his reach. No point is finished until a ball has bounced twice or has crashed into the back wall. He hits searing winners while running away from the net. A twist of his hips, a flick of his wrist, and the ball is sailing past.If Tiafoe’s story is all about kismet, Alcaraz’s has seemed preordained. His grandfather owns a tennis club and he has long trained with the former world No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero.Tiafoe stayed even with Alcaraz through the first five games of the second set, but trouble arrived when he was serving at 2-3. That’s when Alcaraz showed that if he can stay healthy, he could have a career as good as anyone who has ever played the game.Alcaraz executed several perfect lobs during the match.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesHe earned his chance to break Tiafoe’s serve for the first time all night, running down a ball deep in the backhand corner and catching up with a drop shot close to the net. With a chance to put away the point, Tiafoe sent it long, then did it once more on the next point.Tiafoe would have chances to get back into the set twice more, but Alcaraz shut the door both times, the first by mixing slices and topspin through a long rally, the second with a serve Tiafoe could not get back. By the end of the set, Tiafoe was showing his first signs of frustration, swatting his racket at the air, as though he knew what was about to come.What came next was ugly. The first two sets had lasted 109 minutes. The third one was over in 33. Alcaraz came out on fire, and Tiafoe came out as a shadow of the player he was in the first set when he grabbed the early lead.Alcaraz won 12 of the first 13 points, building a 3-0 lead and breaking Tiafoe’s serve three times as he rolled to a two-sets-to-one advantage.By the end of the set, Tiafoe looked lost, double-faulting, committing error after error, unable to get his feet behind the ball and set up to swing. Alcaraz beat him every which way, pushing him deep into the backcourt, then drawing him up to the net and passing him, as he seized control of a match that seemed like it would be over very soon.But then Tiafoe became someone Alcaraz had not yet faced — a hometown favorite with more than 20,000 friends ready to help him climb back from the brink.And he did, pulling even at 3-3 and saving a match point at 4-5 by chasing down a drop shot that had the former first lady up out of her seat and urging him on.He did as he was told, pushing the set to a tiebreaker, where he cranked up his serve and finally got Alcaraz to make enough mistakes to force the deciding set. Tiafoe’s performance in tiebreakers, which had been 6-0 at the start of the night, was now 8-0, a record at the U.S. Open.His eyes wide, he nodded up at those thousands of new buddies he had made. This journey was nearly over, but not quite yet.Maybe, though, it’s part of a much larger journey that Tiafoe is on. He has already come so far.Alcaraz will face Casper Ruud in the final on Sunday.Karsten Moran for The New York Times More

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      U.S. Open Semifinals: The 4 Men Left

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      Karsten Moran for The New York TimesCarlos Alcaraz’s quarterfinal match ended at 2:50 a.m. on Thursday. But he’s 19, so he should be ready for Tiafoe on Friday, right?Alcaraz, a Spanish prodigy, has won four tournaments this year and, after starting 2022 ranked 32nd, is No. 4. More

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      Frances Tiafoe vs. Carlos Alcaraz in the U.S. Open Men’s Semifinals: How to Watch

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      Fans will get to see what one of the next great tennis rivalries could look like on Friday at 7 p.m.Those who have been worried about the state of men’s tennis when the likes of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are retired have nothing to worry about.The next generation of men’s tennis is here, and fans will get a chance to see what one of the next great rivalries could look like when Frances Tiafoe, the 24-year-old American ranked No. 26, faces Carlos Alcaraz, the 19-year-old Spaniard ranked No. 4, in the semifinals of the U.S. Open.The two will play in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Friday at 7 p.m. Eastern time in what is expected to be a thrilling and intense match.Here’s what you need to know before their semifinal match on Friday:How did Frances Tiafoe and Carlos Alcaraz advance?Through five singles matches, Tiafoe has dropped only one set, which came in the fourth round against Nadal. Tiafoe defeated Marcos Giron of the United States in the first round, then Jason Kubler of Australia, Diego Schwartzman, an Argentine seeded 14th, Nadal and Andrey Rublev, a Russian seeded ninth, in the quarterfinal.Alcaraz arrives at the semifinals after back-to-back marathon five-set matches: He beat Jannik Sinner of Italy in a 5-hour, 15-minute quarterfinal match that ended at nearly 3 a.m. Thursday, and Marin Cilic of Croatia in the fourth round in a match that lasted nearly four hours.Alcaraz defeated Sebastian Baez of Argentina in the first round, Federico Coria of Argentina in the second and Jenson Brooksby of the United States in the third.Want to see the match in the stadium?Get ready to pay up. As of Thursday evening, tickets in the upper levels of Ashe Stadium were available from resellers on Ticketmaster for about $300. Tickets in the middle levels of the stadium were going for anywhere from about $1,000 to nearly $3,000.The best seats in the house? Those are nearly $7,000.Catching the match at home?Tune into ESPN on Friday. (If you’re in Canada, tune into TSN.)If that’s not enough for you, consider preparing yourself a Honey Deuce, the official cocktail of the U.S. Open. (Find the recipe here.)What can we expect?This match will be intense. Tiafoe and Alcaraz both play fierce tennis, and they’re quick up and down the court.Leading up to the U.S. Open, Tiafoe trained on his home court at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Md. Komi Oliver Akli, a senior director of player development at the center, said that Tiafoe spent much of his sessions focusing on his fitness. Before Tiafoe beat Nadal in the fourth round, Akli told him to be physical in the match.“Make the match longer; make every point longer,” Akli said he told Tiafoe.Tiafoe won their only previous matchup last year in Barcelona on clay. According to Tipico Sportsbook, Alcaraz is the favorite to win Friday’s match, with -200 odds against +150 for the underdog Tiafoe. More

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      Alcaraz Beats Sinner in Late, Late US Open Match

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      The Spanish teenager needed five sets and more than five hours to reach the semifinals in a match that ended shortly before 3 a.m. in New York.It was the latest finish ever at the U.S. Open, played in a city that purportedly never sleeps, but Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner made it well worth staying up into the wee hours.In one of the best (and longest) matches ever contested at this Grand Slam tournament in New York, Alcaraz, a 19-year-old Spanish prodigy, fought off a match point in the fourth set to defeat Sinner, a 21-year-old Italian prodigy, 6-3, 6-7 (7), 6-7 (0), 7-5, 6-3, to advance to the semifinals.“I always say you have to believe in yourself all the time, and that hope is the last thing you lose,” Alcaraz said in an on-court interview early Thursday morning. “I just believed in myself and believed in my game.”The match, an instant-classic quarterfinal, lasted 5 hours and 15 minutes, the second longest Open match ever, and finished at 2:50 a.m., 24 minutes later than the previous record shared by three matches.The suspense and tension was that constant, the quality of the shotmaking and the effort that transcendent.Alcaraz, seeded third, and Sinner, seeded 11th, have long been considered the future of tennis, but they looked much more like the present after the match started on Wednesday night, setting a torrid pace from the baseline and chasing down each other’s drop shots and would-be winners.Alcaraz, an acrobatic speedster from Murcia, Spain, will face Frances Tiafoe of the United States on Friday.Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesBut only Alcaraz, an acrobatic speedster from Murcia, will have a chance to make his big breakthrough at this unusually wide-open tournament. He will face Frances Tiafoe of the United States on Friday in what will be the first Grand Slam semifinal for both men. In the other semifinal, Casper Ruud of Norway will face Karen Khachanov of Russia.None of those four men have won a major singles title: no dishonor and no surprise in a long-running era that has been dominated by the Big 3 of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.But neither Federer nor Djokovic played this year in New York, and Nadal, short on matches and perhaps even a little short on inspiration after a taxing season, was upset in the fourth round by Tiafoe, a flashy 24-year-old who is the first American man since Andy Roddick in 2006 to advance this far at his home Grand Slam event.Tiafoe will surely have the majority of the support in Arthur Ashe Stadium, with its capacity of nearly 24,000. He will also have the advantage of extra rest.His three-set match with Andrey Rublev was played in the day session, which allowed Tiafoe to settle in for the evening at his hotel as Alcaraz and Sinner pushed each other historically deep into the night.The match was the second longest ever played at the U.S. Open, behind only the 1992 semifinal between Stefan Edberg and Michael Chang, won by Edberg in 5 hours and 26 minutes.But Alcaraz, who fell onto his back and dropped to the court after closing out the match with a service winner, looked anything but pessimistic as he tapped his chest and thanked the few thousand fans who stayed until the finish.The digital clock on the court showed that it was just about 3 a.m., but it wasn’t too early to look ahead to his next match.“It’s going to be really, really tough,” Alcaraz said at a news conference that finished shortly before 4 a.m. “Everybody knows the level of Frances. He has beaten Rafa Nadal; Rublev in three sets. He’s playing unbelievable right now: high confidence. He loves the crowd. He loves this court.”Despite Alcaraz’s youth, this is becoming a habit. His previous match against Marin Cilic — another five-set duel — also concluded after 2 a.m., and the late-night finishes will almost certainly revive the debate about the wisdom of putting athletes of any age in this position.The U.S. Open is not alone: The Australian Open, the first major of the season, has had even later finishes. But with a night session that begins at 7 p.m. (or later) and typically includes a best-of-three-set women’s match and a best-of-five-set men’s match, there is always a risk of sleep deprivation.Changing the start times or programming could address the situation, but it must be balanced with the strong emphasis on giving the men and women equal billing on the main show court. Night sessions are also an important source of revenue for the majors and many other tour events (the French Open recently added one as well in 2021).But Alcaraz, who is in the middle of a breakthrough season, has already demonstrated that he can recover from one nocturnal marathon. Now he will get a second opportunity. He is the youngest man to reach the semifinals of the U.S. Open since Pete Sampras, an American who was 19 in 1990 when he went on to win the title.Alcaraz grew up playing almost exclusively on clay in Murcia, in southeastern Spain, at a local club developed by his grandfather. But in recent years, he has begun training much more often on hardcourts at the JC Ferrero Equelite Sport Academy in Villena, about 60 miles away, where Alcaraz boards and works with his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, a former world No. 1 for whom the academy is named.Though Alcaraz beat Nadal and Djokovic to win the Masters 1000 title on clay in Madrid this year, and reached the quarterfinals of the French Open, his best results so far in his short career have come on hardcourts. He reached the quarterfinals last year in his debut U.S. Open and reached the semifinal of the BNP Paribas Open in March before winning the Miami Open.Alcaraz is the youngest man to reach the semifinals of the U.S. Open since Pete Sampras, who was 19 in 1990 when he went on to win the title.When Jannik Sinner served for the match at 5-4, he could not seal the deal.Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesHe has an all-action style, and he frequently slides into near splits even on a hardcourt, a surface that allows him to make fast changes in direction and get the full benefit of his quickness.Sinner, who defeated Alcaraz in July in the fourth round at Wimbledon, repeatedly had to hit three or four terrific shots close to the lines to secure points as Alcaraz stretched and skidded to retrieve balls that would have escaped the reach of lesser talents.Sinner is not as quick, not as much of a showman, but he has his own enviable strengths, including an ability to produce smooth, seemingly effortless power and precision by punching and counterpunching near or inside the baseline.Both young men squandered opportunities that could have made their night easier (and shorter), but that was due, in part, to the resilience and skills of the opposition.When Sinner served for the match at 5-4, he could not seal the deal, failing to convert his lone match point at 40-30 when he missed a backhand off a strong second-serve return. Sinner then missed a forehand swing volley just wide to allow Alcaraz to even the score at 5-5.Alcaraz swept through the next two games to force a fifth set, which began at 2:05 a.m. after four and a half hours of toe-to-toe tennis.And yet the level did not drop, as both men continued hustling to all corners of the court and making magic on the move.“I was ready for a tough, tough battle,” Sinner said. “I feel physically for sure more ready to play these kind of matches for hours and hours.”Despite the next-generation masterwork that was on display early into Thursday morning, there is no guarantee in elite sports, certainly not in tennis, that the promise will be fully realized over the long run.For an example, Alcaraz and Sinner needed to look no further than one of the spectators at Ashe Stadium: Juan Martin del Potro, the 2009 U.S. Open men’s champion.A towering Argentine with thunderous strokes, he looked likely to take his place alongside the Big 3, only to see his career interrupted and ultimately ended by major wrist and knee injuries.Alcaraz is in the middle of a breakthrough season.Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesThe lesson is clear: Seize the championship opportunities when they arise, regardless of your age or your upside.And though both Alcaraz and Sinner had this marvelous match in their grasp as Wednesday night turned into Thursday, only Alcaraz got to experience the mixture of euphoria and relief that comes with this kind of special victory.“I think this one will hurt for quite a while,” said Sinner in his very-late-night news conference.Alcaraz can still win the U.S. Open, but first he had better get some sleep. 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      Sinner Beats Alcaraz in a Match Befitting Wimbledon’s Centre Court

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      The young talents made their Centre Court debuts hours after Wimbledon celebrated the main stage’s 100th anniversary, and they provided a foil to a contentious match the day before.WIMBLEDON, England — It was a long weekend full of contrasts at the All England Club.The first Sunday of the tournament has traditionally been a day of rest at Wimbledon, where they once did not play on Sundays at all.But time rumbles on, and sometimes rolls right over tradition. Wimbledon has now joined the other Grand Slam tournaments by scheduling matches on every day available.This year, the added entertainment on the first Sunday was more a pleasure for the senses than the regular fare on Saturday, when Nick Kyrgios and Stefanos Tsitsipas put on a mutually bratty display that you could not take your eyes off, frequently for the wrong reasons.Sunday restored calm and decorum as two other luminous young talents, Jannik Sinner of Italy and Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, took to the most famous showplace in tennis just a couple of hours after the ceremony and parade of champions that commemorated the 100th anniversary of Centre Court.While Kyrgios swore and berated the chair umpire on No. 1 Court and Tsitsipas knocked a ball angrily into the crowd and tried to nail shots directly at his opponent, Sinner and Alcaraz showed why they were the ones who got trusted with an assignment on Centre Court even though neither had ever played there.Sinner kept Alcaraz stretching and lunging.Adrian Dennis/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThey are talented beyond their years but also classy beyond their years as they demonstrated throughout Sunday’s fourth-round duel, won, 6-1, 6-4, 6-7 (8), 6-3, by the 20-year-old Sinner over the 19-year-old Alcaraz.At one point, Sinner slipped and fell hard on his chest while chasing down an Alcaraz drop shot, and Alcaraz came hustling forward to offer him an encouraging fist bump after he rose to his big feet.Are they the future of men’s tennis? It certainly looks that way, and they have been the present of the game at times, upsetting their elders, winning tour titles and reaching the quarterfinals at Grand Slam tournaments. But there are no guarantees. Injuries, big money and new arrivals can quickly change the pecking order.“I think what we showed today, it’s a great level of tennis, great attitude from both of us,” Sinner said. “There are still so many other players who are playing incredible tennis. For sure, we are the two youngest at the moment. So let’s see. I don’t know in the future what’s going to happen. I think it’s just great for tennis to have also some new names, new players.”This has been a most unusual Wimbledon with the No. 1-ranked Daniil Medvedev and his fellow Russians barred from playing because of the war in Ukraine; the new No. 2, Alexander Zverev of Germany, out after major ankle surgery; and three other leading grass-court players — Matteo Berrettini of Italy, Marin Cilic of Croatia and Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain — withdrawing after testing positive for the coronavirus.There were big windows of opportunity in the draw, and of the 16 players in the men’s fourth round, only two — Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal — had been to even the semifinals of a Grand Slam singles tournament. Sinner will now face Djokovic, the three-time defending champion at Wimbledon, in the quarterfinals after Djokovic defeated Tim van Rijthoven, a late-blooming Dutch wild-card entrant, 6-2, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, on Sunday night.Though seeded 10th at Wimbledon, Sinner had never won a match on grass on the main tour until arriving at the All England Club, but it was difficult to understand why as he navigated the grass and generated huge punching power with his groundstrokes against Alcaraz off shots hit from all different kinds of heights. Sinner was the more consistent force on Sunday, but he was also often the one doing the dictating against one of the most explosive movers and hitters in the men’s game.Sinner, who had lost his only previous tour-level match against Alcaraz, kept him stretching and lunging and turned Alcaraz’s service games into gantlets by repeatedly putting forceful returns at his feet and obliging him to flick half-volleys while leaning back just to stay in the point.“For me, Jannik played incredibly well,” said Alcaraz, the higher seed at No. 5.The elastic Alcaraz was often spectacular (he cannot help himself) but also irregular: misfiring repeatedly on his signature drop shots and failing to convert any of his seven break points while Sinner cashed in on four of his 12.That seemed to be the key statistic. Alcaraz went for too much too often with his groundstrokes. The temptation to end the exchange was understandable. Sinner was setting a torrid pace from the baseline, but it was a testament to Alcaraz’s talent and competitive fire that he turned a potential straight-sets defeat into something much more compelling.He rallied from 0-40 to hold serve in the first game of the third set and then fought off two match points in the tiebreaker before making the shot of the day at 8-8: a sharply angled forehand half-volley drop shot winner off a full-force backhand pass down the line from Sinner that would have finished off just about any other point.Alcaraz raised an arm and pumped up the crowd, which did not need much encouragement, and then closed out the set.But to Sinner’s credit, Alcaraz could not close out the comeback, double-faulting to lose his serve in the fourth game of the fourth set, and despite saving three more match points on his serve in the eighth game, he could not prevent Sinner from serving out the match.Sinner has made a smart hire this summer, employing Darren Cahill, a former player, veteran coach and ESPN analyst, as a grass-court consultant. Cahill, between his daily commentary duties, is helping him prepare for the matches, and they clearly prepared well for Alcaraz as Sinner handled the big stage and big moment with just a bit more sang-froid.“I need to improve my mental stability,” said Alcaraz, who is having a breakout season. “Today and in many matches, I’ve had lots of highs and lows, moments of playing well and playing badly. I have to manage the nerves better. It cost me some today.”So, he conceded, did the Centre Court assignment.“It’s not so much the court itself, or the silence,” he said, referring to the classic quiet between points.“It was not so silent,” he said with a grin. “But it’s more knowing all the story behind this court. You are playing and knowing all the historic matches that were played there that were so important to the game. That’s what weighed on me.”The parade of Wimbledon winners certainly underscored the point on this special Sunday, as retired champions like Billie Jean King and Rod Laver shared the grass with active champions like Nadal, Djokovic, Andy Murray and Venus Williams and with champions on hiatus like the surprise guest Roger Federer.“For me it was a privilege today to go for the first time there in the Centre Court,” Sinner said.He made the most of it, and together, he and Alcaraz did the grand occasion justice. More

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      Alexander Zverev Beats Carlos Alcaraz at the French Open

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      PARIS — Alexander Zverev, the No. 3 seed, returned to the semifinals of the French Open with a 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7) victory over Carlos Alcaraz on Tuesday, ending the Spanish 19-year-old’s stirring run at Roland Garros.Zverev, a 25-year-old German, also snuffed out Alcaraz’s rousing comeback in this quarterfinal. Zverev, beaten by Alcaraz in the Madrid Open final ahead of the French Open, was the more consistent and convincing player for nearly three sets. “I think letting him go ahead in the match and letting him get the confidence was going to be a very difficult thing for me to come back from,” Zverev said.But Alcaraz, on the brink of being quickly eliminated, did lift his game. As usual, that was quite a sight, as he produced delicate drop shots, audacious returns, reflexive volleys and full-cut forehand winners that left the 6-foot-6 Zverev staring wistfully at the ball marks on the red clay court.Alcaraz, like the top-seeded Novak Djokovic, is half tennis player, half gymnast. And with a flurry of brilliant and acrobatic tennis, Alcaraz, the No. 6 seed, took the third set. With another surge late in the fourth set, he broke Zverev’s serve when he was serving for the match at 5-4. This all-court duel, by this stage, was well worthy of a tiebreaker, and both men produced excellence under duress yet also cracked.Alcaraz had a set point at 6-5 in the tiebreaker and failed to convert it when he made an unforced error with his backhand into the top of the net. Zverev missed a backhand of his own on his first match point during the tiebreaker.It was now 7-7 and the chants of “Carlos, Carlos” were only getting louder. But Zverev, with the crowd and the flow against him, steeled himself, winning the next two points to close out the match. He finished off the victory with a bold backhand return winner down the line that Alcaraz, one of the quickest men in tennis, could not come close to reaching.“It is one shot I like, it’s true,” Zverev said, grinning throughout his post-match news conference, which he started by raising both his arms in triumph.“I’ve done it a lot in my career,” he said of his backhand return winner. “But I had to win the match myself, I felt I was going to either miss it by a country mile or hit a winner, and I hit a winner, which I’m quite pleased about.”Alcaraz, in the midst of a breakthrough season, has still played in only four Grand Slam tournaments.“I leave the court, leave the tournament with the head very high,” he said. “I fight until the last ball. I fought until the last second of the match, and I’m proud of it.”But the best-of-five-set format remains another type of challenge than the best-of-three-set variety played on the regular tour. For now, Alcaraz’s best results in the majors are quarterfinal runs at the U.S. Open last year and now in Paris.“I didn’t start well, and in this level, quarterfinal of a Grand Slam, you are playing against the best players in the world, so you have to start the match better than I did today,” Alcaraz said. “I have to take the lesson. I mean, I have to improve to the next Grand Slam or next matches. But I would say I’m not far away to reach a semifinal or be able to win a Grand Slam.”Zverev, a semifinalist at Roland Garros last year, clearly felt the odds were against him on Tuesday in light of Alcaraz’s recent results. Alcaraz had won the Barcelona and Madrid titles back-to-back on red clay and resumed rolling at Roland Garros after saving a match point against his Spanish compatriot Albert Ramos-Viñolas in the second round.“I knew I had to play my absolutely best tennis today from the start, and I’m happy I did that,” Zverev said. “Obviously he kept on coming back. He’s an incredible player. I told him at the net, he’s going to win this tournament a lot of times, not only once, and I just hope I can win it before he starts beating us all, and we’ll have no chance at all.”Zverev, despite his fine performance (and evident relief) on Tuesday, is still a long way from winning his first Grand Slam singles title. In the semifinals, he will face the winner of Tuesday’s second match: a night session between Djokovic and the fifth-seeded Rafael Nadal, who has won the French Open a record 13 times.“It’s not really getting easier from here,” said Zverev, still looking delighted. “But I said a lot of times, I’m not 20 or 21 years old anymore; I’m 25. I am at the stage where I want to win, I’m at the stage where I’m supposed to win, as well.” More