The Spanish third seed Carlos Alcaraz defeated the Greek ninth Stefanos Tsitsipas with ease, paving the way for an exciting semi-final match at the French Open against the new world number one, Jannik Sinner.
Last year, Alcaraz, the reigning Wimbledon champion, showed great play to defeat Tsitsipas with a record of 6-2 6-1 7-6(5) and secure a place in the last four at Roland Garros for the first time in his professional career. With this recent win, Alcaraz has defeated Tsitsipas in the quarter-finals of the Paris major for the second year in a row.
Highlights of the game
Alcaraz got off to a quick start in the match, breaking a visibly concerned Tsitsipas. Even while Tsitsipas appeared more focused as the match progressed, he was still unable to get to Alcaraz, and after a poor service game at 5-3, the first set was won in just 31 minutes.
With a terrible opening to the second set, things were not in favour of the Greek player. Tsitsipas lost concentration and began grumbling angrily at his box. He soon went behind 3-0 but came back to force a tie-break.
In a close third set, Tsitsipas committed his second double fault of the match, giving Alcaraz a 4-3 lead. Alcaraz raised his game once more to take a two-set lead.
“It was a very good match, I played great. I controlled my emotions and I was really calm in the moments I had to be,” Alcaraz said.
The Spaniard is now set to play against Jannik Sinner, who moved up in the world rankings as Novak Djokovic withdrew from the competition due to a knee injury. Sinner became the first Italian to lead the men’s rankings since the Association of Tennis Professionals introduced the computer rankings in 1973.
“It’s every player’s dream to become number one in the world… seeing Novak retiring [from the tournament] is disappointing, so I wish him a speedy recovery,” Sinner remarked.
Source: BBC