Today’s first French Open men’s semifinal had all the makings of an era-defining classic: Novak Djokovic on a quest to play for what would be a record-breaking 23rd Slam; Carlos Alcaraz playing to clearly cement himself as the world number-one and the next Great Player.
And, for a couple sets, that’s the match we were served up: blistering forehands and ridiculous drop shots from ingénue Alcaraz; canny counterpunching strategy and nerves of steel from veteran Djokovic. The two split the first two sets, which were filled with the kind of drama that would belie their conventional-seeming 6-3, 5-7 score.
Early in the third set, though, the wheels—make that the legs—fell off for Alcaraz, who began cramping up so severely that he conceded his own service game just so he could receive attention from a medical trainer. After some fluids and some massaging, Alcaraz could still do little more than sit back and watch while essentially handing Djokovic the third and fourth sets, 6-1 and 6-1. (Djokovic will play the winner of the other semifinal, which pits Alexander Zverev against Casper Ruud, for the title on Sunday.)
It’s worth noting that Alcaraz cramped up in the same way, at virtually the same time in the match, in his Miami Open loss to Jannik Sinner. With nothing less than Wimbledon looming next, here’s hoping that Alcaraz and his team sort out his conditioning—or, as I suspect, his nutrition—so that we can all see the kind of epic we’ve been waiting for.
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