Carlos Alcaraz says he doesn't feel unbeatable at Roland Garros, the site of the Paris Olympics tennis competition and the French Open title he won last month. His opponents might disagree.
Alcaraz ran his winning streak at the place to 11 matches and became the youngest man to reach the singles semi-finals at a Summer Games since Novak Djokovic in 2008, getting past Tommy Paul of the US 6-3 7-6 (9-7) at Court Philippe Chatrier on Thursday.
“I had a really great two weeks in Roland Garros - playing great tennis here, feeling great moving, feeling great hitting the ball. So (I came) here having the same feeling,” said Alcaraz, the 21-year-old Spaniard. “But I can lose against everybody. I have to respect every player.”
In the semi-finals Friday, Alcaraz will take on Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada, a 6-4 6-7 (10-8) 6-3 winner over three-time major runner-up Norwegian Casper Ruud, and the 37-year-old Djokovic will meet Lorenzo Musetti of Italy.
Djokovic felt pain in his surgically repaired right knee while beating Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3 7-6 (7-3) on Thursday night and said he's concerned about how he'll be against Musetti.
Musetti eliminated Tokyo Games gold medallist Alexander Zverev of Germany 7-5 7-5.
“One of my best matches, so far, of my career,” said the 22-year-old Musetti, who reached his first major semi-final at Wimbledon last month before losing to Djokovic.
The women's final Saturday will be between China's Zheng Qinwen and Croatian Donna Vekic.
Zheng defeated No.1 Iga Swiatek of Poland 6-2 7-5 while Vekic was a 6-4 6-0 winner against Slovakian Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.
Alcaraz already owns four grand slam titles and is just a few days older than Djokovic was when he took home a bronze for Serbia 16 years ago in Beijing.
This is only the latest in a series of “youngest since” or “youngest ever” achievements for Alcaraz, whose recent championships at the French Open and Wimbledon raised his grand slam count to four.
As it is, he was the youngest man with a major championship on hard, grass and clay courts. In 2022, he became the first teenager to reach No.1 in the ATP rankings, getting there after winning the US Open.
And so on.
“It’s been a while since Alcaraz lost a match here,” Paul said, “so I would say that he’s probably the favourite, right?
“It’s not a secret that right now Alcaraz is kind of like the golden standard.”
After losing in singles, Paul went back out on court and teamed with Taylor Fritz to reach the doubles semi-finals by beating Andy Murray and Dan Evans 6-2 6-4 in the last match of Murray's career.
The Americans will now meet Australian veterans Matt Ebden and John Peers for a shot at an Olympic medal.
Murray, the three-time grand slam champion and the only player in Olympics tennis history with two singles golds, had announced he would retire after the Paris Games.
“I knew that moment was coming for the last few months. If it didn’t happen today, that was going to be in a couple days’ time, and I was ready for it," the 37-year-old Murray said.
