World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz battled physical distress and scorching conditions to defeat Alexander Zverev in a gripping five-set semifinal, lasting over five hours, to reach his first-ever Australian Open final. Despite controversy over a medical timeout and being far from full fitness, the 22-year-old Spaniard showed immense grit and belief
Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz is ecstatic after beating Germany’s Alexander Zverev in Melbourne on Friday. Pic/Getty Images
An ailing Carlos Alcaraz said “believing” helped him pull through one of the most demanding matches of his career to down Alexander Zverev in five epic sets and reach his first Australian Open final on Friday.
The World No. 1 outlasted the German third seed 6-4, 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (3/7), 6-7 (4/7), 7-5 over a titanic 5hrs 27 mins in hot conditions.
The Spaniard only narrowly avoided crashing out after a huge fright at 4-4 in the third set when he pulled up in pain with what appeared to be cramp. He was allowed to have treatment at the changeover, leaving Zverev furious and angrily remonstrating with officials. Medical timeouts are not permitted solely for muscle cramping. Despite not being at 100 per cent, the 22-year-old clawed back from a break down in the fifth set as the crowd roared him on. “Believing all the time,” Alcaraz, into his eighth major final and fourth in a row, said of how he pulled through. “It was one of the most demanding matches I’ve ever played in my short career,” he added.
Zverev said Alcaraz shouldn’t have been allowed a timeout for cramps: “He was cramping. You can’t take medical timeout for cramping.”
5 hr 27min
The match between Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev is the longest semi-final in Australian Open history, surpassing the previous record of 5hr 14min, set by Rafael Nadal and Fernando Verdasco in 2009
22 years 258 days
Carlos Alcaraz is now the youngest man in the Open Era to reach the finals of all four Grand Slams, beating American Jim Courier’s mark by exactly 50 days
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