Tennis: “My dream”: Third Wimbledon final for Alcaraz

Carlos Alcaraz leaned far back and shouted his joy into heaven with a wide mouth. The top favorite has nervous the finale of Wimbledon and may hope for his third title in series with the tennis classic for lawn. The 22-year-old Spaniard defeated the American Taylor Fritz 6: 4, 5: 7, 6: 3, 7: 6 (8: 6) in the semifinals and is in the final at a Grand Slam tournament for the sixth time. He won the previous five.

“It was a really difficult match. It was very difficult conditions in the temperatures here,” said Alcaraz, who defended two set balls at more than 30 degrees in the fourth round. “This is my dream here”. On Sunday he meets the winner of the game between the Italian tennis world list most Jannik Sinner and the seven-time Wimbledon winner Novak Djokovic from Serbia.

High celebrity density in the stands

Before the eyes of numerous prominent people like the star actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Benedict Cumberbatch and Tobey Maguire, Alcaraz only had a longer phase of weakness at the end of the second set. As already several times in the tournament, there were several short interruptions because fans in the blazing sun were not doing well in the stands.

Otherwise, the world ranking second showed the entire repertoire of his extracre: with strong serves, numerous network attacks and plenty of finesse, he ended Fritz’s dream of the first Grand Slam title. For Alcaraz it was the 20th victory in Wimbledon one after the other, and this season has also been unbeaten for 24 games.

Alcaraz is the tenth player in the history of the men’s professional tennis, who was three times in a row in the Wimbledon final-including Boris Becker. Only the Swede Björn Borg, who followed the semi -finals from the Royal Box, won three or more titles in series, Pete Sampras (USA), Swiss Roger Federer and Djokovic in the modern era in the All England Club.

First sentence at a rapid pace for Alcaraz

Alcaraz started rapidly, took off Fritz with a network scooter directly in the opening game. For the first time, the American arrived slowly in his first Wimbledon semi-final. With the titles at the preparation tournaments in Stuttgart and Eastbourne, the world ranking fifth had proven its strong shape on lawn, but never came to the rallies for a long time when his opponent was served.

At 3: 1, Alcaraz seemed to have flown into the right eye, the Spaniard was treated a little later. But this also did not affect him. After only 35 minutes he used his first set ball.

Waggler after interruptions

It took until the fourth game in the second set before Fritz was able to win a point when Alcaraz brought his first serve into the field. After several short breaks, the Spaniard suddenly wiggled. He defended a breakball, but received the break to 5: 7 due to a double error and light mistake.

Fritz went to the cabin to move, Alcaraz stopped in the blazing sun. He quickly found his concentration and rhythm again, at times won 13 points in series and won the number three sentence.

In the fourth round, both players did not allow breakballs on their own. In the tie -break, Alcaraz heated the audience after an overhead ball at the end of a spectacular point, fended off two set balls – and cheered the match win a little later.