Defending men’s champion Carlos Alcaraz reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon with a bruising 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 win over Tommy Paul.
Alcaraz came through a marathon match on No1 Court against the American 13th seed, losing the first set but then turning his fortunes around to keep alive hopes of winning the singles title at SW19 for the second successive year.
He has avoided a meeting with world No1 Jannik Sinner in the semi-finals and will instead face the Italian’s conqueror in five sets, Daniil Medvedev, for a place in Sunday’s final.
Alcaraz’s first serve deserted him for much of the match, and his opponent was on top throughout an awkward first set, but the Spaniard showed his staying power by digging in to reach the final four.
In avoiding just the fourth defeat of his fledgling career on grass, he reached his sixth Grand Slam semi-final at the age of just 21.
Alcaraz let four break points come and go in the first game of the first set as Paul held, but that did not prove a sign of things to come.
Instead, it was Paul pushing to break on the Alcaraz serve — ultimately doing so in the set’s final game, taking it 7-5. Only nine games had been completed by the time the clock read one hour played.
A topsy-turvy second set began with breaks of serve in all of the first three games, but Alcaraz gradually began to click through the gears and, once into his groove, never really lost rhythm.
In the fourth set, Paul was broken in the fifth game as Alcaraz took a 4-1 lead, and it proved unassailable. The youngster — though up against a similarly fine athlete just as able to spring around the court — got over the line.
He will now face livewire Medvedev in Thursday’s first semi-final, as he did at the same stage last year, with the other last-four match set to be contested on Friday between Lorenzo Musetti or Taylor Fritz and Alex de Minaur or Novak Djokovic.
