Image: (c) APA / GEORG HOCHMUTH
The first semi-final of the Erste Bank Open, endowed with 2.09 million euros, in the Wiener Stadthalle is called Carlos Alcaraz against Alexander Zverev. The 18-year-old Spaniard prevailed on Friday after a great performance against number three Italian Matteo Berrettini after 2:40 hours with 6: 1.6: 7 (2), 7: 6 (5). Then Olympic champion Alexander Zverev (GER-2) beat Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime in 2:04 hours with 6: 4.3: 6.6: 3.
Zverev has thus left the court 23 times as the winner in the last 25 games. And the shape curve of Alcaraz is also rising and rising. The Spaniard reached his first tour semifinals at ATP 500 level in Vienna. The teenager won his first title this year in Umag and subsequently defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas in the tiebreak of the fifth set in the third US Open round. He then reached the quarter-finals and became the youngest quarter-finalist in Flushing Meadows of the Open Era and the youngest in one of the four major tournaments since Michael Chang in 1990 at the French Open.
The match against Berrettini was once again high-class, characterized by great baseline duels and another show of the talent and tremendous power of Alcaraz. No less than 8,500 fans were already in the town hall for the first match, Friday was almost sold out. In the first set, Alcaraz almost gave this year's Wimbledon finalist zero before the Italian managed to play another game.
The Spaniard, looked after by the ex-world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero, kept his nerve even in the tight finish. In the third set he gave up a 4-1 lead and had to go into the tie-break against the seventh in the world rankings. In this, the youngster, who was also mentally unusually strong, prevailed and then rejoiced over his second greatest success after that of Tsitsipas in New York.
“The match was incredible. It was one of my best performances ever,” said Alcaraz happily. For him, his mental performance was the key to victory. “The mental part is the most important part of tennis. I think it's the key to playing great tennis from start to finish. It was also my key today to win this match.”
Against his next opponent, he is again an outsider, because Olympic champion Zverev is the highest seeded player after the top seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas and Berrettini were eliminated – and also in strong form. In a total of fifth duel with Auger-Aliassime, who was three years younger, the 24-year-old from Hamburg retaliated for the five-set defeat he had recently suffered in the Wimbledon round of 16. He now leads 4-1 in head-to-head. The decision was made in the contested sixth game of the third set, which lasted around 16 minutes, when Zverev was ultimately able to use his sixth break ball to make it 4-2.
“I'm happy that I'm in the semifinals. It was a difficult match that I made a little difficult for myself,” said Zverev in the hall, referring to a devious volley that earned him a loss of service. “Every single viewer would play it here,” he said with a laugh to the fans. “You can see that professionals are people too.” Zverev was extremely open in his analysis. “I'm glad that I'm through because, to be honest, at some point I shit my pants at the beginning of the third sentence.”
Zverev has been warned about the next duel with Alcaraz, which he shot 6: 3.6: 1 in the first Acapulco round this year. “He has improved a lot since then. He reached the quarter-finals of the US Open and is playing the best tennis of his life. He will still improve a lot. When I was so young, it felt like a very, very long time ago, you didn't have one Pressure.” And this is what you can see in Alcaraz. “I said he would be in the top ten in 2023 – maybe it will be even faster.”
