Carlos Alcaraz avoids rankings disaster at Wimbledon – but needs to improve in one key area
Carlos Alcaraz avoided the prospect of a damaging rankings drop as he beat Daniil Medvedev to claim a place in a second successive Wimbledon final.
It was a repeat of last year’s semi-final, which the Spaniard had won easily, but this time Medvedev proved more of an obstacle before Alcaraz clinched a 6-7 (1) 6-3 6-4 6-4 victory.
The 21-year-old will contest a fourth major final and a second in a row after his first title at the French Open last month.
Medvedev can be proud of his efforts, which included a quarter-final victory over an admittedly ailing Jannik Sinner, but the Russian seemed fortunate not to be defaulted during the opening set.
After umpire Eva Asderaki decided Medvedev had not got to an Alcaraz drop shot before it bounced twice, resulting in a break of serve to the Spaniard, Medvedev reacted with what appeared to be a foul-mouthed rant at the official.
Asderaki climbed down from her chair and talked to the referee and supervisor – an unusual occurrence – before eventually giving Medvedev just a warning for unsportsmanlike conduct.
The win for Alcaraz ensured he will remain in the top four of the ATP Rankings on Monday, as he would have dropped down to No 5 if he had lost against Medvedev.
That would have had big ramifications for next month’s US Open, as Alcaraz may have been outside to the top in the rankings and could have faced Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev or Daniil Medvedev in the quarter-finals in New York.
Now he is assured of being in the top three of the rankings on Monday and he will rise back to No 2 ahead of Djokovic if he retains his title by beating the Serbian in Sunday’s final.
Alcaraz was briefly booed during his on-court interview after he made reference to Sunday’s Euro 2024 final between England and Spain.
“It will be a good day for Spanish people as well,” defending champion Alcaraz bravely said when asked to look ahead to his own final.
Boos followed before Alcaraz countered with a smile: “I didn’t say Spain is going to win but I say it will be a fun, fun day.
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“Obviously it will be a really difficult match. Let’s see who I am going to play on Sunday.
“I feel like I am not new anymore. Yeah, I know how I am going to feel before the final. I have been in this position before, I will try to not do the things I did wrong last year, I will try to be better and try to keep doing the right things.
“I started really, really nervous. Daniil was dominating the match, playing great tennis. It was difficult for me.
“I tried to pull out all the nerves in the second set and it was helpful to be up 3-1. After that I could start to put out my game. I think in the end I played a really good match.”
Alcaraz turned in an impressive performance against Medvedev after dropping the first set of the semi-final, but he will want to improve on key area of his game.
The Spaniard’s first serve percentage was below 50 per-cent for large phases of the match and that was giving Medvedev chances to rattle him on his service games.
While the hugely impressive Wimbledon champion found a way to battle to the winning line despite that flaw in his make-up, he will want to find more accuracy on his first serve in Sunday’s final.
