Carlos Alcaraz digs in when it matters. You don’t reach three Wimbledon finals in as many years if you don’t.
The sheer mettle shown by the second seed on Centre Court was breath-taking, as was his ability to overcome the ferocious serving of Taylor Fritz, his 19 aces and all, and still have enough in the tank to be grinning and joking in a court-side interview a minute, no more, after victory.
Friday afternoon’s 6-4 5-7 6-3 7-6(6) win over the fifth seed was Alcaraz’s most bruising of the Wimbledon fortnight thus far. A closer contest even than the five-set first-round win over Fabio Fognini, he was not as consistently box-office as when cruising past Cameron Norrie last time out. Fritz did not allow it.
But, as we have become so accustomed to from him here at SW19, the Spaniard found a way, saving two set points in the fourth to take that tiebreak, that set and, indeed, the match, as a scorching-hot afternoon on Centre Court gave the crowd the victor it always, deep down, expected. Jannik Sinner or Novak Djokovic awaits in Sunday’s final showdown. After 2023 and 2024, the treble is on the cards for this nerveless 22-year-old.
Alcaraz received some good fortune in the very first game, converting a break point thanks to a shot which clipped the net cord, flopped over the net, and which Fritz was powerless to prevent.
Breaking the Fritz serve in that opening game was not remotely a sign of things to come, countless games on the American fifth-seed’s serve seeming to come and go in the swig of a water bottle, so brutal was Fritz’s serving.
That first set was taken 6-4 by Alcaraz. The second was at 4-3 Fritz with the American pushing to break the defending champion when, within the space of two minutes, two separate spectators on opposite ends of the court required medical attention in the 32-degree heat. The latter was being helped out of the court by stewards when she fainted, requiring a stretcher. Here was a reminder of the conditions for those watching on, and for the two players either side of the net.
Fritz took that second set in its final game, with a break of serve to love as he enjoyed his finest period of the match. But Alcaraz has learnt that vital skill of turning it on not when things are going well but when under the cosh. He broke early— finishing off with a magnificently-weighted lob — and then late in the third set to take it 6-3, his eyes narrowing as the final drew nearer.
There was to be no more help, no gimmes on the Fritz serve. He was not breached again, but then neither was Alcaraz. Into deuce, then, for the fourth set.
How the pendulum swung. Alcaraz raced 4-1 ahead. Fritz then roared back to 5-4. Then 6-4, and two set points. The sirens went off in Alcaraz’s head; time to be even braver. With four successive points, Fritz was beaten as Alcaraz yelled with relief. Into the final again.
It has been a “tough match” made “even tougher by the conditions,” he admitted, “really pleased” with his level against an opponent who had never gone away.
The question of whether he was playing his finest tennis ahead of Sunday’s final was premature, he felt.
“I don’t want to think about Sunday right now. I have to sometimes take my time and enjoy it with my team and close people.”
Sinner, the world No1, or the seven-time Wimbledon champion Djokovic awaits in the final.
“Right now, I’m going to watch the other semi-final. Let’s see,” he said. “But obviously I’m now going to have to play against one of those.”
And he will do all he knows how to, and dig in.
