Alcaraz asserts mastery over Rune, punches Wimbledon semifinal ticket

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

The Carlos Alcaraz tennis clinic is still on full display in the ongoing Wimbledon Grand Slam tournament.

After a dominant outing in his first four matches in the most prestigious grass court surface tournament, Alcaraz showed hunger and high-level tennis once again when he swept Holger Rune in the quarterfinals- 7.6, 6.4, 6.4- to advance to the Wimbledon semifinal round last July 12, 2023.

It was a total domination for the young Spanish sensation after tallying a total of 103 points won for just a three-setter match.

Despite only having four service aces, Alcaraz made sure Rune will feel his power in his first serve attempt and recorded an impressive 79% win rate.

Alcaraz didn’t kick off the match the way he wanted. Rune had more highlight exchanges during the intense opening set and had the crowd on his back when he outdueled the world no. 1 in the net battle.

However, Alcaraz stepped on the gas pedal in the tiebreaker and showed his experience on the biggest tennis stage.

Alcaraz adjusted to Rune’s tremendous net pick-up game and took the match in the baseline area. With only a point needed to close the first set, 6-3, the Spanish star saved the best for last and pulled off a backhand down-the-line return ace to go up 1-0.

As the match went on, Rune began to feel Alcaraz’s groundstroke power and was already committing several unforced errors.

Alcaraz then capitalized on the sequence and just pummeled Rune in every exchange while mixing up his offensive approach by going for the serve-and-volley.

In the third set, Rune had just no answer to Alcaraz’s court wizardry and was all over the surface doing short volley pick-ups that proved to be counter to the Danish’s drop technique.

Alcaraz’s huge win helped him punch a ticket to the tournament semifinals and will be facing world no. 3 Daniil Medvedev.

Meanwhile, in the other semifinal bracket in the men’s singles, Novak Djokovic will be looking to extend his streak of Grand Slam titles against the young Jannik Sinner.