Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz beat Daniil Medvedev 6-7 (1), 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 on Friday to return to the Wimbledon final, trying to win his fourth Grand Slam title at age 21.
Alcaraz is not playing the ball well, making too many concessions with his right hand. If during these two weeks, he had built his game on the power of the drive, this time the curled shot visits the corridor too often. The insistence on this option harms him. Always reactive, he manages to make amends for the first time – after the first break, fourth game – and does so again when the Russian has already managed to draw a considerable distance between one and the other, 5-2 up.
Also Read: Paolini and Krejcikova in the Final, Twists and More Twists at Wimbledon
After a mediocre first set, Alcaraz once again showed his energetic strength and that fans love him by becoming the first teenager to reach number one in the world and the youngest tennis player to win a major on all three surfaces grass, clay, and hard court.
Alcaraz is now one win away from joining Boris Becker and Bjorn Borg as the only men in the open era, which began in 1968, with many titles at the All-England Club before turning 22.
Alcaraz also won the US Open in 2022 and the French Open last month.
Like last year, his title rival will be Novak Djokovic, who advanced with a 6-4 7-6 (2), 6-4 win over Lorenzo Musetti (25) in the other semifinal. Djokovic won 15 of 16 points at the net in the first set and finished with 43 of 56 in the match.
It will be the first time 2 men have met in back-to-back finals at Wimbledon since Novak Djokovic beat Roger Federer in 2014 and 2015.
Djokovic, who has not played in a final this season and needed surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee in June, is seeking an eighth championship at the All England Club to tie Federer’s mark — and move one shy of Martina Navratilova’s all-time record. The 37-year-old Serb is also looking to extend his total to 25 Grand Slam titles and further extend his record.
A year ago at Wimbledon, Alcaraz eliminated Medvedev, the 2021 US Open champion, in straight sets in the semifinals before overcoming Djokovic in five sets in the final.
Now, the third seed had to defeat some ups and downs against Medvedev (5), who was trying to play in his seventh Grand Slam final.
Medvedev went up 5-2 but got into trouble because of his temperament.
Alcaraz broke to get within 5-4 with a drop shot that umpire Eva Asderaki ruled — correctly according to video — bounced twice before Medvedev touched the ball with his racquet. This led to the Russian swearing. Asderaki gave Medvedev a warning for unsportsmanlike conduct after meeting with umpire Denise Parnell.
He quickly regrouped and held on to a perfect tiebreak.
But from there Alcaraz was the one who recovered and headed in the right direction.
Three Medvedev errors led to Alcaraz breaks for a 2-1 lead in the third set, which he capped with a backhand winner that ended a 27-stroke point, the longest of the match. The fans gave a standing ovation, while Alcaraz put his index finger to his ear for more noise.
After Alcaraz emitted his trademark grunt after each right hand, spectators would gasp whether the point continued. Most of the time, it didn’t. Of the 28 winning right hands in the match, 24 were Alcaraz’s.
