Carlos Alcaraz moved one win away from becoming the youngest man to win an Olympics tennis singles gold medal by beating Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-1, 6-1 in the Paris Games semifinals on Friday.
Alcaraz is a 21-year-old from Spain who already has four Grand Slam titles, including one in June at Roland Garros, the clay-court venue being used for tennis at the 2024 Games. He is about a month younger than Vincent Richards from the U.S., who won the gold medal in Paris in 1924.
With many spectators waving red-and-yellow Spanish flags at Court Philippe Chatrier or cheering “Vamos, Carlos!” on a cloudy afternoon, and a brass band playing during breaks in the action, Alcaraz played strongly and never faced a break point.
Auger-Aliassime is a 23-year-old Canadian whose best performance in a major tournament was reaching the semifinals at the 2021 U.S. Open. He reached that stage after Alcaraz, then just 18, had to stop playing in the second set of their quarterfinal match due to an injured leg muscle.
The Alcaraz seen during his Olympics debut is a much more experienced player, having won 12 consecutive matches at Roland Garros and claiming a second consecutive Wimbledon title last month.
Alcaraz defeated 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic in both of those finals at Wimbledon, and they might face each other again for the men’s gold on Sunday. Djokovic, a 37-year-old from Serbia, was scheduled to play Lorenzo Musetti from Italy in the second Olympic semifinal on Friday.
The women’s singles final is set for Saturday, with Zheng Qinwen of China playing against Donna Vekic of Croatia. Iga Swiatek from Poland and Anna Karolina Schmiedlova were scheduled to meet on Friday for the bronze medal.
It was unclear how fit Djokovic would be for his match, as he experienced what he described as “sharp pain” in his surgically repaired right knee while defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarterfinals on Thursday night. Musetti had eliminated Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Alexander Zverev.
