london: Let everyone else ponder what Carlos Alcaraz already has accomplished at Wimbledon and elsewhere — and what might come next for a guy who is unbeatable right now. Alcaraz himself just wanted to enjoy his latest victory for a bit.
Moving within one victory of a third consecutive championship at the All England Club and a sixth Grand Slam title overall at age 22, Alcaraz defeated Taylor Fritz 6-4 5-7 6-3 7-6(6) in the semifinals Friday.
The No. 2-seeded Alcaraz takes a 24-match winning streak into the final, where he will face either No. 1 Jannik Sinner or 24-time major champion Novak Djokovic.
“Not thinking about the winning streak. Not thinking about the results at all. Thinking about … my dream,” Alcaraz said. “Right now, I don’t want to think about Sunday, to be honest. I just want to enjoy this moment, enjoy that I qualified (for) another final.”
He beat Djokovic in the 2023 and 2024 title matches at the All England Club and is 5-0 so far in major finals. That includes a five-set comeback win over Sinner at the French Open a month ago.
The fifth-seeded Fritz, the runner-up to Sinner at last year’s U.S. Open, was trying to become the first American man in the Wimbledon final since Andy Roddick lost to Roger Federer in 2009.
And Fritz came quite close to pushing Alcaraz to a fifth set on Friday, leading 6-4 in the tiebreaker. But Alcaraz collected the next four points to finish off the win, then rocked back on his heels, spread his arms wide and screamed.
“I’m just really proud about the way that I stayed calm,” Alcaraz said, “and then (was) thinking clearly.”
Meanwhile, world No. 1 Jannik Sinner reached a Wimbledon final for the first time, thrashing Novak Djokovic 6-3 6-3 6-4.