In these first few years of his young career, Carlos Alcaraz has relished making the near impossible seem routine. He has performed at such a high level so consistently, learned from his mistakes at warp speed and, even when he has struggled badly, so often he has somehow found a way through.
This time, he could not. Despite a spirited comeback at the death, a pitiful start from the second seed left him with far too much to do against Alexander Zverev, who maintained a high level across four sets and held on in a tough fourth set to win 6-1, 6-3, 6-7 (2), 6-4 and reach the semi-final of the Australian Open.
As a result, Zverev, the sixth seed, and the third seed Daniil Medvedev will duel for a spot in the final on Sunday. Earlier in the day, Medvedev maintained his composure in the uncomfortable heat, holding on against a resurgent Hubert Hurkacz to return to the semi-finals in Melbourne with a 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 win.
Alcaraz entered Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday night favoured to crush his lower-ranked opponent, but their history underlined the potential danger ahead. Zverev held a narrow 4-3 record against Alcaraz, which included one of the best matches of his career to defeat the Spaniard at the 2022 French Open.
It quickly became clear that Zverev was in a similar mood, swinging freely, while Alcaraz was shaky from the beginning. He set the tone by immediately handing over the first break to love with a dire, error-strewn opening service game.
Throughout the first two sets, Zverev served well, scrambled from behind the baseline, drawing errors with his defence and picked his moments well to move inside the baseline and attack. Alcaraz simply could not keep his error count down and finished the first set with two winners and 10 unforced errors. After seemingly starting to find his feet early in the second, the set fell away with haste, his unforced errors piling up again.
It was not until his last stand, with Zverev serving for the match at 5-3, that Alcaraz found a brief moment of inspiration. He played a brilliant return game, closing down the net to seal the break as the crowd erupted and then his attacking all-court game flowed through an irresistible tie‑break as he forced a fourth set.
The momentum had flipped and Alcaraz spent much of the fourth set pushing Zverev back. Under immense pressure from the beginning, Zverev continued to serve extremely well, he hung with Alcaraz in the frantic cat‑and-mouse rallies that the Spaniard initiated and held on there long enough for Alcaraz’s level to fall as he closed a dramatic win.
“With the level that I was playing before, coming into this match with a lot of confidence, knowing that I’m playing good tennis, it’s a shame that I started the match like the way that I did and ending the way that I did. But it’s tennis,” Alcaraz said.
Zverev, meanwhile, continues to play and win while facing serious charges. On the eve of his first‑round match at the Australian Open, the Berlin criminal courts announced that he will face a public trial from 31 May for charges of physically abusing his former girlfriend Brenda Patea and damaging her health. The trial is scheduled to intersect with both the French Open and Wimbledon. Zverev denies the charges.
In the first men’s quarter-final of the day, Medvedev was on his way to a convincing four-set win against Hurkacz with a break in the fourth set before Hurkacz dug deep to retrieve the break and going on to force a fifth set. Medvedev began to struggle badly in the heat as the match extended, but he found a way through.
In a dramatic 11 days Medvedev has endured tough five-setters, the suffocating heat and a match that lasted until 3.40am. “After every match I’m in the locker room destroyed,” he said. “But then we do a good job. One day off is probably enough to feel good the next day. So far, so good in the beginning of the matches, and that’s what matters.”
