Carlos Alcaraz reached the Open semi-finals on Sunday, giving him a comfortable victory over Brandon Nakashima.
As they dispelled concerns over an ankle injury on Thursday, Alcaraz took full control with a 6-2, 6-4 victory and advanced to the semi-finals of nine consecutive tour-level events.
Nakajima couldn’t handle Alcaraz’s serve when he hit 25 winners past the Americans. Alcaraz may have finished his victory before, but he failed to take advantage of the three match points.
“I always say it’s difficult to close games,” Alkaraz said. “It’s even tougher when there’s match points, like when I came back. I lost that game so I thought it was really difficult, but I just kept the focus in the last game and tried to play some great points. I don’t think I’ve played a final game like this so I’m really happy.”
Alcaraz next takes on Casper Ruud, who took less than an hour to beat the Aleksandar Vukic 6-3, 6-2.
Second Seed Taylor Fritz set the semi-finals against fellow American Jenson Brooksby, passing Sebastian Corda 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-3.
