Alcaraz douses Rune fireworks to reach semis for first time

Carlos Alcaraz saw off Holger Rune in straight sets yesterday to stay on course for a Wimbledon title showdown against defending champion Novak Djokovic.
The top seed won the key moments during the quarter-final on Centre Court to progress 7-6 (7/3), 6-4, 6-4 and will play Russian third seed Daniil Medvedev in the semi-finals.
The Spaniard faced just one break point in the entire match, which he snuffed out, hitting 35 winners against 13 unforced errors.
“Honestly, it is amazing for me,” said Alcaraz after beating his friend. “It’s been a dream since I started playing tennis.”
The US Open champion, who now has 10 straight wins on grass, was delighted with his performance against his fellow 20-year-old.
I am playing at a great level. I didn’t expect to play a great level on this surface,” he said.
“For me, it is crazy.”
He said he found it tough at the beginning of the match, especially with Rune on the other side of the net.
“But once you get into the quarter-finals there’s no friends,” he added. “You have to be focused on yourself and I think I did great in that part.”
There was just a single break point created in the first set, which almost inevitably went to a tie-break.
The start of the breaker was tight but Rune’s double-fault gave Alcaraz a 4/3 lead and he won the next three points to take the first set.
It was a similar story in the second set until Rune dumped a forehand smash into the net in the ninth game to give the Spaniard break point.
Alcaraz made no mistake, smoking a backhand down the line to break and holding with ease to move two sets up.
He broke again in the fifth game of the third set, giving Rune a mountain to climb. The Danish star saved one match point on his own serve but was powerless to stem the tide as Alcaraz served out to reach the last four at the All England Club for the first time.
Alcaraz is the youngest semi-finalist at Wimbledon since Djokovic in 2007. The Serbian faces Italian eighth seed Jannik Sinner in tomorrow’s other semi-final.
Alcaraz is aiming to become the third-youngest player to win the Wimbledon men’s singles crown in the Open Era. If he captures his second major at the All England Club, he is guaranteed to remain as world number one.
Earlier, Medvedev battled back to defeat unseeded Christopher Eubanks in five sets and reach his first semi-final yesterday.
The world number three from Russia triumphed 6-4, 1-6, 4-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-1.
Former US Open champion Medvedev hit 52 winners compared to Eubanks’ 74 but crucially committed just a meagre 13 unforced errors to his opponent’s 55.
Eubanks, who had shocked fifth-ranked Stefanos Tsistipas in the previous round, was attempting to become just the third man to reach the semi-finals on debut.
However, the 27-year-old’s challenge fizzled out in the final set of a bruising, big-hitting contest.
“After the first set, I didn’t want to go five sets but when I lost the third, I was happy to go five,” said Medvedev who fired 28 aces. “There were moments in the match when I was losing the game so to say and he was playing well.
“I started to sink and make mistakes but after the third set I started to build something. I had more opportunities in the fourth set and after the tiebreak I played amazing.”
Medvedev was untroubled in the opening set, carving out the only break in the third game before claiming the opener in which he committed just one unforced error to 11 for Eubanks.
However, the American soon found his range with his one-handed backhand, pocketing a double break in the second set before levelling the quarter-final with his seventh ace.
The world number 43 had his tail up and a break in the opening game of the third set was the platform as he moved towards a two sets to one lead.
A frustrated Medvedev was handed a code violation for lobbing a ball that hit a courtside camera operator in the eighth game. An unreturned serve gave Eubanks the set.
Serve dominated the fourth set as Eubanks passed 100 aces for the tournament but it was the more composed Medvedev who claimed the tiebreaker when the American buried a backhand volley into the net.
Suddenly the spirit seeped out of Eubanks’ all-out attacking game as he slipped to a key double break down in the decider.