Carlos Alcaraz’s exceptional shot-making capabilities, regardless of court position or surface, consistently captivate and engage tennis enthusiasts.
Keeps other players guessing, too.
Alcaraz delights in all of that — he loves putting on a show
just as much as he enjoys knowing he makes the guys on the other side of the
net uncomfortable — and figures it can only help him in the Wimbledon
semifinals against Daniil Medvedev on Friday.
It’s beneficial, Alcaraz said, that opponents need to focus
on whether he’ll be “able to be back (in) the point or ... able to hit an
unbelievable shot.”
“For me,” he said, “it’s great that they’re thinking about
it.”
Alcaraz, the No. 3 seed, is seeking a second consecutive
trophy at the All England Club and fourth Grand Slam title overall. His triumph
last month at the French Open made him, at 21, the youngest man to collect a
major trophy on hard, grass and clay courts.
Medvedev, who is seeded No. 5 and defeated No. 1 Jannik
Sinner in the quarterfinals, won the 2021 U.S. Open but is just 1-5 in major
finals.
The other match Friday will be No. 2 Novak Djokovic, who has
won seven of his men’s-record 24 Slam championships at Wimbledon, against No.
25 Lorenzo Musetti, making his debut in a major semifinal.
“Against him, you are probably more stressed, because he’s
probably the best player ever — or one of the best players ever,” said the
22-year-old Musetti, who beat Taylor Fritz in five sets on Wednesday, while
Djokovic got the day off because his foe, Alex de Minaur, withdrew with an
injured hip.
“You walk on court with a different mentality,” said
Musetti, whose 1-5 record against Djokovic includes a five-set loss at this
year’s French Open that ended at after 3 a.m. “If I play in a certain way, I
could have my shot in the next round.”
Alcaraz vs. Medvedev is a rematch from last year’s
semifinals, when Alcaraz won in straight sets before getting past Djokovic in
the final.
It also offers a contrast between a talented attacker
(Alcaraz) and a consummate defender (Medvedev).
“The most difficult thing about facing Daniil, or the most
special thing about him, is he can reach every ball,” Alcaraz said. “Well, he
is like a wall. Every ball bounces back.”
Asked what Alcaraz’s best quality is, Medvedev began this
way: “To be honest, everything.”
That sounds like an exaggeration.
Might not be.
“That’s where it’s tough to play against him, because you
know whatever shot you hit, he can hit a winner from there. So you try to make
his life difficult. You try to hit the shot as good as you can. Maybe he goes
for it and he cannot make it,” said Medvedev, who has won just two of their
previous six encounters.
“Carlos can do whatever, from any position,” Medvedev said,
“and that’s not easy to play against.”
Tommy Paul, the 12th-seeded American who lost to
Alcaraz in the quarterfinals, put something else on the lengthy list of the
Spaniard’s attributes.
“He moves unbelievably well. He’s probably the quickest
player. It’s very hard to get the ball by him,” Paul said. “Grass suits him. He
moves incredible on the grass. It’s not easy to change direction the way that
he does. He stays pretty low. Yeah, I mean, it’s not easy.”
And then, in a nod to the sort of highlight-reel material
Alcaraz regularly produces, Paul added: “Half of the job when you’re out there
is not to let him win one of those crazy points — because when he does, he kind
of gets on a roll.” AP