Carlos Alcaraz defeated Frances Tiafo in a gladiatorial US Open semifinal on Friday to set up a showdown against Casper Roode for the title and world number one ranking.
The 19-year-old Spaniard won 6-7 (6/8), 6-3, 6-1, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3 and became the youngest player since the capture of compatriot Rafael Nadal. Men became Grand Slam finalists. The first of his 22 Slams at the 2005 French Open.
Norway’s seventh-ranked Rood also entered her first Grand Slam final after beating Karen Khachanov of Russia 7-6 (7/5), 6-2, 5-7, 6-2.
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However, Tiafo saved three match points and got breaks in both sets of the last two sets.
“We are in the semi-finals of a Grand Slam, we have to give our all, we have to fight till the last ball,” said Alcaraz, the youngest US Open finalist since Pete Sampras in 1990.
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re fighting for five hours or six hours. It doesn’t matter, you have to give everything on the court.”
For Alcaraz, who won 59 winners, it was his third consecutive five-setter as he closed in a first slam and became the world’s youngest number one.
“It’s my first time at a Grand Slam final. I can look at world number one, but at the same time it’s too far.”
‘Give it all’
“Whatever I have, I am going to give it. I have to handle the nervousness of reaching a Grand Slam final but obviously I am really happy.
Tiafoe praises his winner.
“I gave everything I had, so good tonight from Carlos,” said Tiafo.
“To be honest, I came here to win the US Open, I feel like I let you guys down. It really hurts.”
Alcaraz saw two break points come and go in the opener’s seventh game before he needed to save a set point in the 12th, a breathtaking rally that saw the Spaniard claim from two losing positions.
Kishor saved three more set points in the tiebreak but Tiafo converted his fifth when Alcaraz made his third double mistake of the 64-minute opener.
Alcaraz saved a break point in the third game of the second set, pulling for a victory point in a stage with his back to face Tiafo for another memorable rally win.
His flamboyance was rewarded when he broke Tifo to equalize the semi-finals to bury his return in the net.
Alcaraz needed nine hours and 10 sets in their last two rounds, including a quarter-final, to reach the semi-finals, which ended at 2:50 a.m. on Thursday.
Match Points Saved
However, when he ran for the double break, taking a 4–0 lead in the third set with just three points for Tiaffo, he looked fresh against the two men.
For good measure, Alcaraz broke the American for the third time in the seventh game.
World No. 26 Tiafo, who knocked Nadal out of the tournament in the last-16, was hoping to become the first American to reach a major final since Andy Roddick at Wimbledon in 2009.
He brilliantly took two breaks in the fourth set, saving a match point with a nervous drop shot in the 10th game, before claiming the tiebreak to send the clash into the decider.
It was the eighth successful tiebreak out of eight for the American.
Alcaraz broke 2–0 in the fifth set only for Tiafo to make his way to 2–2 again.
However, the American double-faulted to take back the advantage in the fifth game.
Tiaffo saved two more match points in the ninth game before Alcarz took the win in four hours and 19 minutes when his opponent netted a tired backhand.
Rudd will appear in his second Grand Slam final of the season after finishing runner-up to Nadal at the French Open in June.
“After Roland Garros, I was overjoyed but also humble enough to think that this could be my only Grand Slam final in my career,” Rood said.
“They don’t come easily. So here I am a few months later – it seems beyond words to describe.”
The 23-year-old Norwegian set the tone for his dominance at the start of the semi-finals when he came out on top in a 55-shot rally and converted a third set point in the opening tiebreak, which his Russian rival described as “crazy”. did. ,
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