Alcaraz continues dominance of Tsitsipas to set Sinner showdown at Roland-Garros

Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, the No 3 seed, beat Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, the No 9 seed, 6-3, 7-6 (3), 6-4 to reach the semi-finals of Roland-Garros in Paris on Tuesday evening.

Heading into the match, Alcaraz had dominated the head-to-head against Tsitsipas, winning each of their previous five meetings. Any thought of the Greek turning the tide was soon dispatched, with the 20-year-old executing yet another one-sided victory over the world No 9.

With the win, Alcaraz now sets up the clash that many saw coming when the Roland-Garros draw was first announced: against Jannik Sinner in the semi-finals on Thursday.

Alcaraz brilliant on serve to shut down Tsitsipas yet again

“I think it was a really good match. I played great,” Alcaraz shared on-court after the match. “I think there was no up and downs in my game, I controlled very well my emotions, myself on the court. I was really calm in the moments I had to.

“Really happy in the way I managed everything, the way I played.”

The third seed served very well across the course of the two hour, 15 minute encounter.

Alcaraz accrued three aces, made 73 percent of first serves and won 74 percent of points behind his first. Crucially, he maintained a high win rate on his second serve as well, prevailing in 74 percent of points as well.

Across the course of the match, Alcaraz only gave Tsitsipas two looks at breaking his serve.

Tsitsipas attempted to come to the net a lot in order to counter Alcaraz’s big-hitting form the baseline. The Greek won a good number of the times he approached – 34 from 46 – but was undone by unforced errors in other areas of his game.

Overall, the 25-year-old made 33 unforced errors to Alcaraz’s 21, while each hit a similar number of winners.

This should have been Tsitsipas’ biggest concern, but instead, the Greek was focused on his opponent’s grunt. During the second set tie-break, he was overheard saying to the chair umpire:

“I never complain about this but it’s frustrating. When I’m about to hit the shot… and moments before I hit the shot, I still hear the grunt. It’s not during the shot, it’s right before.”

In the previous rounds of the Roland-Garros 2024, the 21-year-old Spaniard won against American lucky loser J.J. Wolf (6-1, 6-2, 6-1), Dutch qualifier Jesper De Jong (6-3, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2), American Sebastian Korda, the No 27 seed (6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-3) and Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, the No 21 seed (6-3, 6-3, 6-1).

Tsitsipas, ranked No 9, won against Hungarian Marton Fucsovics (7-6 (7), 6-4, 6-1), German Daniel Altmaier (6-3, 6-2, 6-7 (2), 6-4), Chinese Zhizhen Zhang (6-3, 6-3, 6-1) and Italian Matteo Arnaldi (3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-2) earlier in the tournament.

Paris (Grand Slam), other quarter-finals results (Roland-Garros, clay, EUR 53.478.000, most recent results first):

• Alexander Zverev vs. Alex De Minaur
• Novak Djokovic vs. Casper Ruud: Walkover (Djokovic withdrew injured)
• Jannik Sinner beat Grigor Dimitrov (10): 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 (3)