World No.1 Carlos Alcaraz qualified for his first semi-final at Wimbledon by dismissing Dane Holger Rune (6th) 7-6 (7/3), 6-4, 6-4 on Wednesday.
“The match was very difficult, I was very nervous at the start, to play a quarter at Wimbledon and in addition against Rune”, commented the 20-year-old Spaniard who will face Russian Daniil Medvedev (3rd) on Friday for a place in final, his second in a Grand Slam after winning last year at the US Open.
“It was hard to play against Rune, but when you step onto the court there are no friends. You have to be focused on yourself and I think I’ve done that very well,” added Alcaraz.
“In the second and third sets, I had fun. Winning the first one and screaming vamos really freed me up to play at my best,” he said, not wanting to expand too much on his next opponent.
“The grass suits his game well. But we don’t play semi-finals at Wimbledon every year, so I’ll take advantage of it first and prepare for the match when we get closer to it,” he said. declared. The men’s semi-finals are scheduled both on Friday.
Alcaraz thus won the first Wimbledon quarter-final contested between two players under 21 in the Open era (since 1968).
He also becomes the youngest player to reach the semi-finals at Wimbledon since Novak Djokovic in 2007 (also 20 years old but a few days younger than him: the Serb was born on May 22 and Alcaraz on May 5).
Both Alcaraz and Rune were extremely solid on their face-offs, so break points were very rare: three for the Spaniard who scored two, and only one for the Dane who his opponent saved.
In the end, Alcaraz therefore controlled the game without too many fears, chaining a fifth victory in a row on grass after his title at Queen’s.
In the first set, only Rune got a break point, from the very first game of the match, but without managing to transform it.
The two players came to the tie-break where, from 3/3, the Spaniard lined up four consecutive points to pocket the set.
In the second, the two players quietly kept their serve until the ninth game when, on a completely missed smash, Rune offered Alcaraz his first break point. The Spaniard seized the opportunity with a backhand return winner that sent a cloud of chalk up as he touched the line.
In the process, he served at 5-4 to break away two sets to nil.
The third set was like the previous one: Alcaraz scored the only break of the set, this time to lead 3-2. He then had a first match point on Rune’s serve at 5-3, but the Dane managed to stay in the game, forcing the Spaniard to serve for the match.
What he did with authority: he quickly led 40/0 and concluded on his third match point of the game, the fourth in total, taking advantage of a too long return from Rune.