Alcaraz beats the wrong in late US Open

It was the last-ever final of the US Open, played in a city that never sleeps, but Carlos Alcaraz and Janic Sener made it worth staying until the early hours.

In one of the best (and longest) matches ever contested at this Grand Slam in New York, Alcaraz, a 19-year-old Spanish prodigy, battled a match point in the fourth set to defeat Sener, the 21-year-old Italian prodigy. Old, 6-3, 6-7 (7), 6-7 (0), 7-5, 6-3, to advance to the semi-finals.

“I always say you have to believe in yourself all the time, and that hope is the last thing you lose,” Alcaraz said in an interview on the court early Thursday morning. “I only believed in myself and believed in my game.”

The match, an instant classic quarter-final, lasted 5 hours and 15 minutes, the second longest open match ever, and finished at 2:50 a.m., 24 minutes after the previous record shared by three matches.

The thrill and tension were so consistent, the shot quality and effort transcended.

Alcaraz, the third seed, and Sinner, the 11th seed, have long been considered the future of tennis, but they looked more like the present after the match began on Wednesday night, making rapid advances from the baseline and chasing each other’s shots. and potential winners.

But only Alkaraz, which is Acrobatics from MurciaHe will have a chance to make his breakthrough in this extraordinarily wide open tournament. He will face American Frances Tiafoe on Friday in what will be the first Grand Slam semi-finals for both men. In the other semi-finals, he will face the Norwegian Kasper Ruud, the Russian Karen Khachanov.

None of these four men have won a major singles title: no shame, no surprise in a long era dominated by the Big Three of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

But neither Federer nor Djokovic has played this year in New York, and Nadal, who has been match short and may have lacked inspiration after a tax season, was upset in the fourth round by Tiafoe, the 24-year-old who is the first American since Andy Roddick in 2006. He advances that far at his home event at the Grand Slam.

Tiafoe will certainly have the majority of support at Arthur Ashe Stadium, with a capacity of approximately 24,000. He will also have the advantage of extra comfort.

His three-set match with Andrei Rublev was played in the day session, allowing Tiafoe to settle into the evening at his hotel as Alcaraz and Sener historically pushed each other deep into the night.

The match was the second longest ever at the US Open, after the 1992 semi-finals between Stefan Edberg and Michael Chang, which Edberg won in 5 hours 26 minutes.

But Alcaraz, who fell on his back and fell onto the field after finishing the match with a serve winner, looked pessimistic as he tapped his chest and thanked the few thousand fans who stayed on until the end.

The digital clock on the field showed it was around 3am, but it wasn’t too early to look forward to his next game.

It’s going to be really tough, everyone knows Francis’ level. He beat Rafa Nadal. Rublev in three sets. He’s playing incredibly now: high confidence. He loves the crowd. He loves this court.” .

Despite the young karaz, this has become a habit. His previous match against Marin Cilic – another five-set duel – also wrapped up just after 2 a.m., and the late nights will almost certainly revive the debate over the wisdom of putting athletes of any age in this position.

The US Open isn’t alone: ​​The Australian Open, the first major tournament of the season, is over even later. But with a night session starting at 7 p.m. (or later) and usually involving the women’s best of three sets and the best of five sets, there is always the risk of sleep deprivation.

Changing start times or programming can remedy the situation, but it must be balanced with a strong focus on giving equal billing to men and women in the main showroom. Night sessions are also a significant source of revenue for the majors and many other tour events (the French Open recently added one as well in 2021).

But Alcaraz, who is in the middle of a great season, has already proven he can recover from one night’s marathon. Now he will get a second chance. He is the youngest player to reach the semi-finals of the US Open since Pete Sampras, an American who was 19 years old in 1990 when he won the title.

Alcaraz grew up playing almost exclusively on clay in Murcia, southeast Spain, at a local club developed by his grandfather. But in recent years, he’s been training a lot on the hard courts at the GC Ferrero Equilette Athletic Academy in Villena, about 60 miles away, where Alcaraz trains and works with his coach, former world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero. The academy was named.

Although Alcaraz beat Nadal and Djokovic to win the Masters 1000 title on clay in Madrid this year, he reached the quarter-finals of the tournament. French OpenHis best results to date came in his short career on hard courts. He reached the quarter-finals last year on his US Open debut and reached the semi-finals of the BNP Paribas Open in March before winning the Miami Open.

He has an all-move style, he slips a lot into close splits even on hard ground, a surface that allows him to make quick changes in direction and take full advantage of his speed.

Sinner, who defeated Alcaraz in July in the fourth round at Wimbledon, repeatedly had to make three or four superb shots near the lines to secure points as Alcaraz stretched and slid to recover balls that would otherwise have escaped the arrival of less talent.

Sinner isn’t fast, nor a showman, but he has his own enviable strengths, including the ability to produce seemingly smooth power and accuracy through punching and counter punching near or within the baseline.

Both guys missed chances that could have made their night easier (and shorter), but that’s partly due to the opponent’s resilience and skills.

When Sener served up the match with a 5-4 score, he couldn’t seal the deal, failing to convert the only match point at 40-30 when he mistook a powerful backhand from a second serve. Sener then missed a shot with a wide swinging forehand to allow Alcaraz to tie the score at 5-5.

Alcaraz passed the next two games to force the fifth set, which began at 2:05 a.m. after four and a half hours of tennis.

The level didn’t drop, however, as both men continued to hustle all corners of the field and make magic on the go.

“I was ready for a tough, tough fight,” Sener said. “I definitely feel physically more ready to play this type of match for hours and hours.”

Despite the work of the Next Generation shown early Thursday morning, there is no guarantee in elite sports, and certainly not in tennis, that the promise will be fully realized in the long run.

For example, Alcaraz and Sinner needed to look no further than one spectator at Ashe Stadium: Juan Martin del Potro, the 2009 US Open men’s champion.

The towering Argentinian hit by resounding blows looked likely to take his place alongside the Big Three, only to see his career cut short and eventually ended with major wrist and knee injuries.

The lesson is clear: seize heroic opportunities when they arise, regardless of your age or positivity.

And while both Alcaraz and Sinner had this fantastic bout in their fists as Wednesday night turned into Thursday, only Alcaraz got the mix of euphoria and comfort that comes with this kind of special victory.

“I think this person is going to be sore for a long time,” Sener said at his late-night press conference.

Alcaraz could still win the US Open, but first he had better get some sleep.