Carlos Alcaraz inched closer to tennis history when he stormed into his very first Australian Open semi-final with an emphatic straight-sets win over Alex de Minaur on Tuesday.
The world number one silenced the majority of the crowd at Rod Laver Arena when he easily defeated the Australian sixth seed 7-5, 6-2, 6-1, thus continuing his perfect run in Melbourne without losing a set. This is the farthest stage for Alcaraz at the season’s first Grand Slam, the only major missing from his sparkling résumé.
“I’m really happy with the way I’m playing,” Alcaraz told reporters. “Every round I feel like I’m playing better, and today I was really relaxed on the court.”
The first set was hard-fought as De Minaur almost made a comeback after Alcaraz had opened a 3-0 lead. Nevertheless, the Spaniard upped his game to 5-5 and harvested the game to seal the set, and from there the game was one-way traffic. Alcaraz’s strength and accuracy simply overpowered De Minaur, who was not able to keep up the early fight.
Being only 22 years of age, Alcaraz is now at a point where two more wins will make him the youngest man to have achieved the career Grand Slam, thus breaking Rafael Nadal’s record.
The player who will be his obstacle is the third seed, Alexander Zverev, who secured his semi-final berth already after beating Learner Tien from the US in four sets. Alcaraz admitted that the coming match will be a tough one, calling it “a great battle” as he is looking forward to winning an Australian Open title for the first time.
