Carlos Alcaraz reaches first grand slam semifinal after marathon, late-night finish against Jannik Sinner
Carlos Alcaraz, a former No. 100 who won his first ATP tournament in San Jose only a few months ago, and now, after a late-night run off a hotel elevator at the Palau Sant Jordi, is set to end another career milestone Wednesday night at the Barcelona Open tournament.
The 32-year-old Spaniard is poised to become the oldest ATP champion ever. He is the first player in the history of the ATP tour to win his first career title at the age of 30.
With his 6-4, 7-6 (8), 6-4, 7-6 (3), 6-4 win against Jannik Sinner at the Andorran city palace in Barcelona, he will join Roger Federer for the all-time record of the oldest major winner.
Alcaraz, who also has a career-high of No. 13 on the singles rankings, is trying to match a career-best 19 victories in 22 matches.
And he’ll need to have a better performance here than he did Friday, when he defeated Dominic Thiem in the third round of the Rome Masters before falling in the next round to Andy Roddick.
Sinner was playing in his third ATP tournament in Barcelona in three weeks and was having a solid two-week run having won a hard-fought two-setter against Spaniard Tommy Haas in his last outing.
But Sinner has been hit by several long ago injuries and has had trouble since the final against Thiem.
“He didn’t play that well this week,” Sinner said, “but he’s getting better and better.”
Alcaraz broke into the top 20 when he won the last event of the French Open by beating countryman Tomas Berdych in straight sets.
He won the title in two sets against world No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas and then was the first seed to win a Grand Slam event since David Ferrer in 2008 at Wimbledon.
His final top 20