Alcaraz Beats Fritz At Wimbledon To Set Up Super Sunday Against Sinner

Carlos Alcaraz dreams of winning beautiful tournaments and he has a chance to make it three Wimbledon titles in a row after beating Taylor Fritz 6-4 5-7 6-3 7-6 (8-6) in Friday’s semifinal on Centre Court.

It was his 20th consecutive win at Wimbledon, extending an overall unbeaten record to 24 matches that has included victory in Rome, Paris and at Queen’s. “I’m not thinking about the winning streak or the results at all,” Alcaraz said in the courtside interview. It’s true. He is striking the ball with a freedom that is detached from the normal pressure points of a big match. The 22-year-old moved as easily as the butterflies near the press seats and played like he was in the back garden.

Alcaraz was on Fritz’s case from the start, breaking the fifth seed in three minutes to kick things off. The American’s orange racket matched the color of the heatwave maps in London as temperatures climbed to around 32 degrees. There were two more medical incidents in the crowd, but the Spaniard kept up the sunny disposition when play restarted to take the opener with a 100 per cent success rates on first serve points.

Fritz has been in sensational form on the grass. He won his fourth Eastbourne trophy last month and survived two epic five-set matches against Giovanni Mpteshi Perricard and then Gabriel Diallo in the opening week at SW19. The mood music was good coming into the greatest test against Alcaraz. Fritz was good, almost very good, but he had to be sensational to steal three sets off the smiling assassin from Murcia.

What the 27-year-old Californian did very well in the second set was apply scoreboard pressure, invading Alcaraz’s territory on return. The world No. 5 hit 13 clean winners and found a comfort zone in his best phase of the match. The French Open champion saved a break point at 3-4 and then missed three makeable backhands on Fritz’s service. Alcaraz’s loss of rhythm leaked into the next game as he was broken to love. When timing goes, even the best can look like park players for a second.

Having equalized, Fritz left the stage for a break leaving Alcaraz in the shade alone with his thoughts. Maybe that was a mistake. After working his way through a few more clunky shots, the five-time major winner rediscovered his joie de vivre, lobbing the U.S. Open runner-up with a perfectly executed lob to break for 2-1.

Fritz’s attempts at tweeners were awkward compared to the feather hands of his opponent. Those dropshots are delightful toppings to the dessert collection of sweet spot strokes in Alcaraz’s armory. At one point, the 6 foot 5 inch giant dived like a goalkeeper and still couldn’t touch the acutely angled Spanish artwork.

Fritz was broken again at the end of the third which meant he ceded serving first in the fourth. From there, it was a case of hanging on. “Alcaraz covers the court like an octopus,” said Andre Agassi on BBC commentary. That much is true but the description doesn’t describe the aesthetics. The way the number two seed twiddles with his racket with a magician’s sleight of hand is mesmerizing.

Fritz realigned in the fourth set and exploded from 4-1 down to 6-4 up with some aggressive points in the tiebreak. He retracted when the opportunity presented itself to give some fifth set drama though, hitting a soft ball rather conservatively and the chance had gone. “I had my chances,” admitted the American. “I should have been able to get one of those break points in the fourth set tiebreaker to force a fifth set. The second and the fourth sets, I definitely played exactly how I wanted to. “

The men’s singles draw has played out exactly as the seedings pronounced. After the first part of the Alcaraz versus Sinner major series in Paris, the sequel has come hot on its heels. If Wimbledon and Roland Garros have proved anything, it is that these two are the present and future of tennis by some distance. Five more hours in the scorching sun on Sunday will do very nicely.

Sinner will have to break a losing streak of five matches against his fellow Next Gen graduate. The Italian dismissed a physically compromised Novak Djokovic in the other semifinal in straight sets. Alcaraz will present a far more mobile unit of magic tricks. Their respect for each other won’t get in the way of what will become the defining rivalry of the age.