Paris2024: Alcaraz passes Tommy Paul’s test to reach semis

Carlos Alcaraz defeated American Tommy Paul 6-3, 7-6(7) on Thursday to advance to the Olympic semifinals in Paris, having bounced back from a poor start in the second set.

Alcaraz, who is 21 years old and the holder of the Wimbledon title, lost in straight sets to Americans Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram on Wednesday. Despite this setback, Alcaraz persevered against Paul and made it to the final four in his first Olympics campaign.

“Today I was tired. But playing so Spain is the biggest thing. Everytime I felt tired I remembered that I’m not playing just for me but for all my people back in Spain”, He stated after the victory.

In the semifinals, Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada or Casper Ruud of Norway will take on Alcaraz, who scored 22 goals in his two hours and one minute triumph.

The ATP Rankings’ World No. 3 player is the youngest man to reach the men’s singles semifinals since 2008’s Novak Djokovic in Beijing.

Alcaraz subsequently completed the victory on his second match point, making history as the fifth Spaniard to advance to the men’s singles semifinals since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.

After defeating the World No. 13 on his way to winning the Wimbledon title last month, Alcaraz currently leads Paul 4-2 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series.

He is making his Olympic debut and will have the chance to compete for a medal. If he wins his semi-final he will play for gold and if he loses he will play for bronze.

Elsewhere, Lorenzo Musetti continued his resurgent run on Thursday when he upset World No. 4 and defending Olympic gold medalist Alexander Zverev 7-5, 7-5 to reach the semi-finals at the Paris Olympics, guaranteeing him the chance to play for a medal.

He will face Serbian Novak Djokovic or Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semi-finals. If he wins, he will enter the gold medal match, while defeat would offer him the chance to fight for bronze.