Alcaraz catches Sinner in the Roland Garros semi-finals | ATP Tour

Roland Garros

Alcaraz catches Sinner in the Roland Garros semifinals

The Spaniard beats Tsitsipas in the quarterfinals

June 04, 2024

The most anticipated duel by ranking projection at the bottom of the Roland Garros 2024 draw will be a reality. The third seed, Carlos Alcaraz, and the second seed, Jannik Sinner, will collide in the semifinals of the Grand Slam on clay after both won their respective duels this Tuesday in Paris.

After Sinner’s victory against Grigor Dimitrov, the Spaniard took on the challenge against his favorite victim, the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, whom he ended up beating 6-3, 7-6(3), 6-4 to seal his second qualification for the semifinals. of this event. A year ago he debuted in this instance before falling to eventual champion Novak Djokovic. The Murcian seems ready to improve himself.

His tennis, increasingly more prolific as the rounds went by in Paris, has now been able to beat three seeds in the last three rounds: Sebastian Korda, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Tsitsipas. And on all three occasions, he has won in straight sets. This Tuesday he was far from losing for the first time to the Greek, ninth seed in the tournament.

And now he leads the Lexus ATP HeadToHead 6-0 between them. It is Alcaraz’s most successful rivalry in his career. His superiority over the finalist of this event in 2021 was once again demonstrated. His only moment of crisis occurred at 4-2 in the second set when he lost serve for the first time.

For the rest, a Murcian player was almost always seen leading the scoreboard. Even from the first game of the match in which he took advantage of his first break point. And mentally he was untreatable. For some reason he maintained his composure when he went from 4-2 to 4-4 in the second set and did not tremble when it came to leaving the duel at 2-0 in sets.

It didn’t take long for the third set to become unbalanced either. Two double faults from Tsitsipas helped the two-time Grand Slam champion break at 3-3. This time the advantage was taken advantage of by the team coached by Juan Carlos Ferrero on the way to their fifth qualification for the Grand Slam semifinals.

“I played great, I controlled my emotions well and I was very calm in moments when I should have been,” Alcaraz said in his on-court interview. “I’m happy with how I handled myself, and to be in the semifinals again at Roland Garros.”

With this result, Alcaraz reaches 50 victories in his career in Grand Slams, the same ones that Sinner reached this Tuesday shortly after his first promotion to No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings was guaranteed. The two are the players born in this century with the most games won in this type of event, and now they will face each other on Friday in the semifinals.

“It is the game that many want to see. I’m sure he will show his best tennis. Me the same, let’s see who is going to win. We have played great games, at a high level,” he said about Sinner. “It is a pleasure to have him on the tour, thanks to him I force myself to play better, to give my 100%, to improve my game to try to beat him. I love watching him play too, so it’s going to be a tough challenge, but I like these kinds of challenges.”

At 4-4 is the Lexus ATP HeadToHead between them, and at 1-1 in Grand Slams. Sinner won at Wimbledon 2022, months before Carlitos retaliated at the US Open. The 21-year-old Spaniard also won the most recent duel played last March in the Indian Wells semifinals.

Alcaraz will be looking for his third qualification to a Grand Slam final (he was champion at the US Open 2022 and Wimbledon 2023). Sinner, for his part, aspires to advance to his second final in these tournaments after debuting in this instance at the Australian Open last January in which he ended up being champion.