Alexander Zverev Vanquishes 19-Year-Old Sensation Carlos Alcaraz To Reach French Open Semifinals

Alexander Zverev remains alive for his first Grand Slam title, while Carlos Alcaraz will have to wait for his next opportunity.

Zverev, the No. 3-seeded German, earned his first Top-10 win in a major by defeating No. 6 Alcaraz 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(7) in 3 hours, 16 minutes to advance to his second straight Roland Garros semifinal. The loss snapped a 14-match winning streak for Alcaraz, who entered Paris as the second favorite to win the title behind world No. 1 Novak Djokovic.

Zverev, who had been 0-11 against Top-10 opponents in Slams, will next face the winner between defending champion Djokovic and 13-time Roland Garros winner Rafael Nadal. He lost in last year’s semis to Stefanos Tsitsipas in five sets.

“I’m happy to be playing either the world No. 1 or the King of Clay next,” Zverev told Jon Wertheim of Tennis Channel.

After a double-fault by Alcaraz gave Zverev a break for a 5-4 lead in the fourth, Zverev served for the match, but his history of service troubles in big spots bit him again and Alcaraz broke for 5-all.

In the tiebreak, Zverev earned his first match point at 7-6, but then hit a backhand into the net. It marked the second match point Alcaraz had saved in the fortnight, after saving one against Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the second round.

With Alcaraz serving at 7-8, Zverev smacked a 95-mph backhand return winner on the second match point to earn the victory.

“It was obviously a fantastic match,” Zverev said. “Carlos seemed really unbeatable on the clay so far this season, so I’m obviously happy with my performance. I knew that I had to absolutely play my best tennis from the first point on and I did that. And I’m happy to close it out in four sets because a fifth one would have been tough.”

Zverev remains alive for his first major title. He lost in the 2020 U.S. Open final after being up two-sets-to-love on Dominic Thiem and has now reached three other major semifinals.

“I’m in the semifinals of a major and I just beat the best clay court player that we had this season so I think it shows that I can play OK as well,” Zverev said. “I think people sometimes forget that. I’ve been around for quite a while now.”

Alcaraz had won 14 straight matches, including capturing the title in Madrid where he became the first man to defeat Nadal and Djokovic in the same clay court event. He was seeking to become the youngest Roland Garros semifinalist since Nadal in 2005. Alcaraz has yet to reach a major semifinal but just turned 19.

Still, the future seems bright for him and it appears only a matter of time before he breaks through to a Slam final.