Carlos Alcaraz moved one win away from becoming the youngest man to win an Olympics tennis singles gold medal, beating Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-1, 6-1 in the Paris Games semifinals on Friday.
Alcaraz is a 21-year-old from Spain who already owns four Grand Slam titles — including in June at Roland Garros, the clay-court facility being used for tennis at the 2024 Games — and is about a month younger than Vincent Richards of the US was when he claimed the gold in Paris in 1924.
With dozens of spectators waving red-and-yellow Spanish flags at Court Philippe Chatrier or yelling “Vamos, Carlos!” on a cloudy afternoon — and a soundtrack provided during breaks in the action by a brass band in the stands — Alcaraz was superb.
He never faced a break point. He won the point on 10 of 11 trips to the net. He made just 13 unforced errors, 10 fewer than Auger-Aliassime, who also lost to Alcaraz at this year's French Open.
“I just couldn’t find a way to be comfortable in any pattern, any position. Whether it was trying to dominate the forehand cross-court or change of direction, the forehand inside-out, the backhand side,” The AP quoted Auger-Aliassime as saying. “Every aspect. The movement. The defense. I was dominated.”
Auger-Aliassime is a 23-year-old Canadian whose best showing at a major tournament was a semifinal appearance at the 2021 US Open. Auger-Aliassime made it to that round back then when Alcaraz, just 18 at the time, stopped playing in the second set of their quarterfinal because of an injured leg muscle.
“He’s improved a lot, every time we’ve played,” said Auger-Aliassime, who beat Alcaraz in each of their first three head-to-heat contests but now has lost the four since, all in straight sets. “I don’t have the solutions right now.”
The Alcaraz on display during his Olympics debut is, indeed, much more of a finished product, someone who has won 12 consecutive matches at Roland Garros and collected a second consecutive title at Wimbledon last month, too.
Alcaraz defeated 24-time Slam champion Novak Djokovic in both of those finals at the All England Club, and there could be a rematch for the men's gold on Sunday. That's because Djokovic, a 37-year-old from Serbia, was scheduled to play Lorenzo Musetti of Italy in Friday's second Olympic semifinal.
It was unclear how fit Djokovic would be for that match, because he felt what he described as “sharp pain” in his surgically repaired right knee while getting past Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarterfinals Thursday night. Musetti eliminated Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Alexander Zverev.
The women's singles final is Saturday, with Zheng Qinwen of China playing against Donna Vekic of Croatia. Iga Swiatek of Poland and Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia met Friday for the bronze.
In the men's doubles semifinals Friday, Matt Ebden and John Peers of Australia defeated Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul of the United States 7-5, 6-2. They will go up against another American duo, fourth-seeded Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram, for the gold.
In women's doubles, Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini of Italy advanced to the gold-medal match with a 6-3, 6-2 victory against Karolina Muchova and Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic.
