Carlos Alcaraz positioned a finger behind his ear and gazed upward at an astonished Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd.
The Spanish famous person had simply capped a 21-shot rally in opposition to Jiri Lehecka with an unimaginable backhand winner, making a full-extension stretch to faucet the ball over the web and properly out of his opponent’s attain.
It was that form of afternoon for Alcaraz.
Alcaraz delivered spotlight after spotlight in Tuesday afternoon’s tidy 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 victory, sending him again to the U.S. Open semifinals for the primary time since 2023.
His semifinal match is scheduled for Friday, when he’s slated to face the winner of Taylor Fritz and Novak Djokovic’s quarterfinal bout.
“I’m playing great and I’m feeling really comfortable, as I’ve said many times in this tournament,” stated Alcaraz, the world’s No. 2 participant. “I think today, I just played, really, an almost perfect match.”
Carlos Alcaraz competes within the quarterfinals of the 2025 U.S. Open tennis championships on the USTA Billie Jean King Nationwide Tennis Heart in Flushing New York on September 2, 2025. (Andrew Schwartz/NYDN)
By way of 5 matches on this yr’s event at Flushing Meadows, Alcaraz is but to drop a set.
He wanted solely an hour and 56 minutes to eliminate the Czech Lehecka, the world’s Twenty first-ranked participant, who repeatedly engaged Alcaraz in lengthy rallies however in the end proved to be no match.
Alcaraz gained each recreation during which he served, gained 4 of 9 break factors, delivered 28 winners to Lehecka’s 17, and dedicated 17 unforced errors to Lehecka’s 23.
The 22-year-old Alcaraz didn’t lose a single level within the last three video games during which he served.
“Today, I kind of met the Grand Slam version of Carlos,” Lehecka stated.
“If you want to beat him, you need to win at least a few of the big points, and he won all of them. Even when I played a really good rally, even when I tried to put him under pressure, go to the net, change the rhythm, do something, he was there. He had an answer for everything I tried.”
Carlos Alcaraz competes within the quarterfinals of the 2025 U.S. Open tennis championships on the USTA Billie Jean King Nationwide Tennis Heart in Flushing New York on September 2, 2025. (Andrew Schwartz/NYDN)
And in lots of situations, Alcaraz did it in jaw-dropping vogue.
Within the tenth recreation of the primary set, Alcaraz ranged from one fringe of the courtroom to the opposite and drilled a winner down the road, past the attain of an out-of-position Lehecka. Alcaraz then wagged his finger in a celebration akin to Dikembe Mutombo’s.
Alcaraz’s dazzler to finish the 21-shot rally helped him go up 4-2 within the second set, kicking off a run during which he gained three consecutive video games.
And when he broke Lehecka’s serve for the ultimate time to go up 5-4 within the third set, Alcaraz unleashed a guttural scream, sensing victory was imminent.
Carlos Alcaraz celebrates profitable his quarterfinals match of the 2025 U.S. Open tennis championships on the USTA Billie Jean King Nationwide Tennis Heart in Flushing New York on September 2, 2025. (Andrew Schwartz/NYDN)
“I’m trying,” Alcaraz stated. “Sometimes, I lose a lot of points because I’m trying the good shots or the impossible ones. Some of them happened. When it gets in, you feel super great.”
Alcaraz is now 3-1 in opposition to Lehecka, who defeated him within the Doha quarterfinal again in January. Just like the Open, Doha is a hard-court event, however that occasion is a best-out-of-three format.
“On the Grand Slam stage, when he knows that he has more sets to find his rhythm, he’s a little bit more free, the way how he plays,” Lehecka stated of Alcaraz.
“Even when I played good points, I was just not winning the points where I played good tennis, and that’s not something I was used to seeing in the previous rounds.”
Alcaraz was solely 19 when he gained the Open in 2022 for his first Grand Slam victory. He returned to the semifinal the next yr.
However Alcaraz is on a run at redemption this yr after struggling a surprising second-round upset to 74th-ranked Botic van de Zandschulp in straight units finally yr’s Open.
Carlos Alcaraz celebrates profitable his quarterfinals match of the 2025 U.S. Open tennis championships on the USTA Billie Jean King Nationwide Tennis Heart in Flushing New York on September 2, 2025. (Andrew Schwartz/NYDN)
Alcaraz is now two matches away from his second Open championship and his sixth profession main title. He stays on a collision course to fulfill top-ranked Jannik Sinner of Italy within the last.
Sinner and Alcaraz have mixed to win every of the final seven Grand Slam tournaments. These embrace the 2025 French Open, the place Alcaraz defeated Sinner within the last, and Wimbledon, the place Sinner beat Alcaraz within the last.
Ought to they meet once more this weekend, it might mark the third consecutive main event during which Alcaraz and Sinner confronted one another within the last. Sinner is ready to play Lorenzo Musetti within the quarterfinals on Wednesday night time.
“Just two more steps to do, and let’s see what happens,” Alcaraz stated of profitable the Open. “I’m just feeling great and hungry to make it.”
Initially Revealed: September 2, 2025 at 4:56 PM EDT
