Carlos Alcaraz won his 12th consecutive match, easily beating Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-1, 6-1 in just 75 minutes – and now has the chance to emulate countryman Rafael Nadal by winning gold in the title match on Sunday.
The Spaniard played a near-faultless match with fourteen winners and used his famous forehand to great effect in the opening exchanges. He mixed up powerful inside-out and inside-in forehand winners, but also disguised well to throw in his customary drop shots, bamboozling his opponent.
After the match Alcaraz admitted he is going to enjoy the Olympic final on Sunday, “It’s going to be a really special moment for me, in my life, in my career, so I’m going to try and enjoy this moment, because it’s going to be really difficult,” Alcaraz admitted to the ATP website.
“It’s going to be difficult, but it’s going to be special… I will try to be focused on myself and try not to hear all this, all the fans, all the people that say ‘I’m going to win’. I just want to give 100 per cent my best tennis and hopefully I reach my goal to get the gold.
“I have to be focused on myself, on my game. I’m really happy with my performance. Probably one of my best in this tournament so far, so I’m really happy with the feeling and hopefully keep going and be better in the finals.”
Even though the head-to-head was level at 3-3, a deeper dive revealed that Alcaraz had won the last three meetings without dropping a set. The pair had faced off at Roland Garros in the last 16 earlier this year where Alcaraz came through with the loss of just seven games.
Alcaraz made his move early in the third game of the opening set. On the second serve at 30-30, he took up a more central position on the return and forced a forehand error off Auger-Aliassime to carve the first breakpoint of the match. The Canadian then meekly double faulted to concede the break.
Auger-Aliassime, currently 19th in the ATP rankings, was then regularly outplayed in baseline rallies winning just 269% of points in return games, and lost serve for the third time at 5-1 down when a forehand went long to lose the opener in forty minutes. It was the eight set in a row he had lost to Alcaraz. The second set was almost a carbon copy of the first with Alcaraz dominating in all areas, winning 71% behind first serve and not facing a breakpoint all match.
Although Auger-Aliassime lost, he surely can take heart from a strong tournament where he beat fourth seed Daniil Medvedev in the fourth round and sixth seed Casper Ruud in the following match – and still has the chance for a bronze medal.
