Unbelievable: Battling Cramps In Both Legs And On The Brink Of Elimination, Carlos Alcaraz Fights Back To Win An Epic 5 Hour 27 Minute Thriller To Advance To The Aussie Open Final
IZHAR KHAN. Getty Images.When they announced that the first men's semifinal of the Aussie Open on Thursday night would be Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev I was thrilled. That meant I could watch them start at a reasonable hour at 10:30PM EST. Great news for my health so I wouldn't be up in the middle of the night with my heart rate through the roof pulling for Carlos. That was an easy task in my 20s, but married now with a 10 month old puppy we gotta try to go to bed at normal times and be a real human being. Well I'm typing this at 4:30 AM like an asshole as we conclude one of the longest Aussie Open matches of all time. Fuck me.
So how'd we get here? Up two sets to love, Carlos Alcaraz was in complete control of this match against Zverev. It honestly wasn’t even a bloggable event at that point. It seemed like a matter of when, not if that he would seal the deal in straight sets and advance to the final facing the winner of Sinner/Djokovic on Sunday. Then out of seemingly nowhere late in the 3rd set he grabbed at his right thigh, struggling to walk.
The broadcast flashed back to a moment just prior where Carlos revealed to his team that he had thrown up. They later would show a clip of him sitting during a changeover puking into a towel. Throwing up obviously depletes your body of electrolytes and heavily contributes to dehydration, hence the cramping. All bad things if you're a tennis player in the middle of a match.
Alcaraz was granted a medical timeout to the rage of his opponent Zverev. You're not meant to receive treatment like this to stop play if it's cramps, only for injuries. As Carlos received treatment Zverev went off in German to officials. He wasn't wrong if I'm being honest, but the umpire allowed the treatment.
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Play shortly resumed and Carlos managed to push things to a tiebreak, even putting pressure on Zverev to hold serve and stay alive in the match at 4-5 30-30 and 5-6 0-30 despite not being able to move. Zverev went on to win that tiebreak with Carlos basically immobile. All of a sudden this match was flipped on its head. The whole tournament was. We were headed straight for a Sinner-Alcaraz AO final until the cramps. Now what?
Well, they started the 4th set and things didn't look great. There was a moment early on where it looked like Alcaraz was making a beeline for the net during a changeover to shake hands and retire. He altered his path at the last second and went to his chair instead to continue going.
Now if there's one thing to know about Zverev it's that he's just about the biggest choke artist you can find. In any big match or moment of his career he's opted to play passive and shy away from any sort of aggression with his ridiculous talents. For most of the 4th set you saw that with Alcaraz finding a way to escape hole after hole, despite not being 100% physically.
By the time the 4th set tiebreak rolled around, Alcaraz looked pretty good in terms of movement. The serve still wasn't ideal, but he was in a way better spot than the end of the 3rd. Credit to Zverev, he fought back from down a mini-break at 2-3 to snatch the breaker and level the match as we crossed the four hour mark on court. Probably the clutchest tennis I've seen him ever play.
I thought at that point Alcaraz should have left the court and taken a bathroom break to fully reset, take a breather, and come out fresh for the 5th. Instead he kept trucking along and immediately got broken to begin the set. There was a moment in 4th game at 1-2 where Carlos produced two break points against Zverev's serve, one coming on a second serve, but couldn't manage to get either return in. Again, more clutch serving from Zverev. Carlos would waste another BP in the next service game with a forehand that clipped the net. It was obvious though that Carlos had regained his movement.
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Zverev held strong though, surviving even more break points in the eighth game of the set. Every time he needed to make a big serve or rip a forehand he found it. Who was this guy? Carlos had chances sure, but you have to give credit to Zverev for finding that clutch gene in a big match for the first time that I can honestly ever remember.
And then guess what happened? Carlos kept pushing and pushing and pushing until Zverev broke. The place went nuts. He then held and put all the pressure on Zverev.
And a few minutes later my friends, that was all she wrote. Once you blow that lead you got no shot. Alcaraz found one last running forehand to break Zverev once more and win the match. The longest semifinal in AO history.
Just let Carlos tell you how he did it.
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The man never gives up and always entertains. Doubt him and you will be proven wrong. He’s box office all the time. I'm so tired but I'm so happy I stayed up.
Time for a nap before we begin the work day. VAMOS!!!
P.S. if you’re Zverev I don’t know how you come back from that. So close to the best win of his life playing so well in big moments only to have the same demons resurface at the worst possible time. Tennis is a cruel fucking sport.