Tonight show with Carlos Alcaraz
New York, September 8
This was a match that would not end. Should not end, one might say. Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, two of the brightest young stars of men’s tennis, traded shots of the highest quality and countless momentum swings across five sterling sets for 5 hours and 15 minutes until Alcaraz finally won the last point at 2:50 am on Thursday, the latest finish in US Open history.
It was a quarterfinal, no trophy at stake, yet was as taut a thriller as this tournament has produced or likely will, a tour de force of big cuts on the full sprint and plenty of guts, a 6-3 6-7(7) 6-7(0) 7-5 6-3 victory for the No. 3-seeded Alcaraz, a 19-year-old from Spain.
Meanwhile, American Frances Tiafoe rose to the occasion by reaching his first Grand Slam semifinals with 7-6(3) 7-6(0) 6-4 win over Russian Andrey Rublev.
No stopping Swiatek
World No.1 Iga Swiatek overcame a shaky serving performance to beat American Jessica Pegula 6-3 7-6(4) and reach the semifinals for the first time.
Aryna Sabalenka swatted aside Czech Karolina Pliskova 6-1 7-6(4) to reach her second straight semifinals. — Agencies
1Alcaraz reached his first Grand Slam semifinals and is the youngest man to get that far at the US Open since Pete Sampras won the title at 19 in 1990.
1Tiafoe became the first Black American man to reach US Open semifinals since Arthur Ashe 50 years ago, playing in the stadium named after the late former champion.
2:50Alcaraz’s match lasted for more than five hours and concluded at 2:50 am, beating the previous record for the latest finish of 2:26 am set in three matches in 1993, 2012 and 2014.
