Alcaraz eliminated Auger-Aliassime and will play semifinals against Sinner

The Spaniard would make it to the semi-finals for the second consecutive year in the California desert (losing to Rafa Nadal in an epic match in 2022) and regain the world number one currently held by the Serbs if he clinched the Indian Wells title. Novak Djokovic.

To do this, he will have to beat Sinner on Saturday, who on Thursday beat the current champion of the tournament, the American, in the quarterfinals. taylor fritzwith 6-4, 4-6 and 6-4 In 2 hours 17 minutes. The Italian, who is number 13 in the world ranking, defeated Alcaraz in the Umag final in 2022 and eliminated in the last 16 at Wimbledon, but lost to Murcian in the quarterfinals of the US Open after an exciting match.

The American will play the other semi-finals of Indian Wells Frances Tiafoe and Russian Daniil MedvedevHe is having a great moment with 18 matches in a row and three tournaments in a row (Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai).

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On a chilly night at Indian Wells, when the midfield was nearly full, two of the young talents called to comfort the historic trio of Nadal, Federer and Djokovic were measured. Also in the previous story about 22-year-old Auger-Aliassime. There was one particularly striking fact as the ‘black beast’ of 19-year-old Alcaraz: Murcian had never managed to break the Canadian’s serve in any of the 31 games he played in three matches against the others. In fact, Alcaraz had wasted 11 ‘intermediate’ balls in these precedents.

Although it wasn’t easy at first, that drought ended tonight. Alcaraz started the fight by showing great strength on his serve, getting his opponent in trouble, but didn’t sign the break until his sixth opportunity against an Auger-Aliassime who defended himself furiously and relied on gunshots on his serve (3-2). ) . Before Alcaraz reached that key moment in the first lap, he had dropped pearls of exceptional quality, such as a few excellent drop shots or, above all, an impressive rally that he “resurrected” with a gorgeous lob even though he seemed to already have it. lost points and finished making the net. Completely stunned by the audience, the young man raised his hand to his ear to ask for more applause and celebrated such an act by clenching his fist and looking at his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero.

Having to save just one ‘break’ ball in the first set, Alcaraz didn’t look back and resolutely sealed the first set with a great parallel forehand. Auger-Aliassime had to invent a comeback, but despite not keeping his head down, he couldn’t find the heroic resistance of his round 16 duel, this time saving six match points against American Tommy Paul. The Montrealer dropped his first row to serve in the second set with a few errors, but then recovered with the first ‘timeout’ of the evening against Alcaraz (1-1). It was a turning point with a more robust Auger-Aliassime balancing the forces of the match.

Alcaraz did not rush, however, keeping his dominance from the bottom of the court and patiently awaiting his 4-4 moment in another game where his opponent continued to serve in a cold sweat. Auger-Aliassime took two massive serves to resolve the 15-40 but eventually accepted the timeout and threw the towel at an Alcaraz that was steadily marching through Indian Wells.

Highlighting his efforts this evening at the bottom of the field after the match, the Spaniard was very happy to defeat “one of the toughest players on the track” for the first time. “I’m really proud that I beat him here in this stadium and got to the semi-finals after this great game.”