Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz beat American Tommy Paul 5-7 6-4 6-2 6-2 in the Wimbledon quarter-finals to take another step towards defending his title.
Paul put in a strong performance in the first two sets and thrilled the crowd on Court One to go 7-5 2-0 up as the third seed looked uncomfortable.
The Spaniard often found himself slipping in his quest to match Paul’s powerful shots in the match played under a closed roof on another rainy day in the British capital.
But Alcaraz, 21, raised his game to win the last two sets and close out the match that lasted just over three hours, and America’s 21-year wait for one of its players to be crowned All England Club champion continues.
During the match, Paul saved 19 break points, but lost his serve eight times, which was enough for Alcaraz, who has won three Grand Slam titles on three different surfaces, to win the match.
With this, Alcaraz achieved his 12th consecutive victory in the Wimbledon Championship held on grass courts.
“He was playing great on grass,” Alcaraz said in a courtside interview. “He won Queen’s last month, he was doing great things at Wimbledon, beating top players. It was a very tough match for me.
“In the first set and at the beginning of the second set, I felt like I was playing on clay, with strong exchanges and each point going for 10 to 15 shots,” he added.
“I had to stay mentally strong when I lost the first set, it was tough for me. It was a long journey for me, it was a very long match, so I’m very happy to find the solutions to win,” he continued.
Alcaraz will play Russian Daniil Medvedev, the 2021 US Open champion, for a place in the final in a repeat of last year’s semi-final.
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