Alcaraz defeats Tsitsipas and will play the semi-finals of Roland Garros against Djokovic

Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz made it to the semi-finals for the first time Roland Garroselse grand slams of the season and on clay, after he forcefully and without excessive effort defeated the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas in three sets 6-2, 6-1, 7-6(5), in order to meet the Serbian Novak Djokovic for a place in the final.

The one in Athens was presented as the first big test for the number one in the world, but it turned out that the “great” Parisian is not very well and that there is a Murcian in his “black beast”. The man from El Palmar maintained his unbeaten record against his opponents after five matches with a high level and tenacity that drove the Australian Open finalist to despair, something that worried him only when the first favorite was at his worst.

After showing his good level against top opponents such as Canadian Denis Shapovalov and Italian Lorenzo Musetti, the United States Open champion continued to show the growth of his tennis ahead of the final hour, especially for his crossover with another theorist favorite next Friday. Only a miss in the last part of the third set brought some excitement and the match lasted more than two hours.

The world number one was devastating with his drive (20 of his 36 winners), with which he hit his opponent’s backhand, unable to find his shots or his forehand or his strong serve to put up much resistance. His 30 unforced errors were a rock against the Spaniard.

Alcaraz started hard from the start and made Tsitsipas doubt who could not get out of the “black hole” the Spaniard put him in, very solid from the bottom and also giving his best shots. Murcian broke early, and the Greek could not find an answer to the strength of his serve and his constant mistakes, especially with his backhand. Another break to love helped the top seed to close the first set.

The expected reaction of the Athenian player did not arrive. Ballasted by his failures (13 in this second round) and by the fact that already from the first game he saw how he served again without winning points, he could not disturb the student of Juan Carlos Ferrer at any moment, who did not lower his level even an iota.

6-1 in the second set was a clear demonstration of the difference in Philippe-Chatrier and did not have the desired effect on the fifth player of the world, who fell without arguments. The Murcian didn’t lose focus and soon capitalized, but then suffered his worst game to lose serve when he served to end the match amid horror in the stands.

Tsitsipas reached “sudden death” and saw himself able to turn the situation around, but that’s when Alcaraz again offered his best version of the penalty and began to think about the challenge that awaits him on Friday against the winner on the 22nd. grand slams.