Carlos Alcaraz reaches the Olympics men's tennis singles final by beating Felix Auger-Aliassime

PARIS (AP) — Carlos Alcaraz moved one win away from becoming the youngest man to win an Olympics tennis singles gold medal, 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 owns four Grand Slam titles — including in June at Roland Garros, the clay-court facility being used for tennis at the 2024 Games — and is about a month younger than Vincent Richards of the U.S. was when he claimed the gold in Paris in 1924.

With dozens of spectators waving red-and-yellow Spanish flags at Court Philippe Chatrier or yelling “Vamos, Carlos!” on a cloudy afternoon — and a soundtrack provided during breaks in the action by a brass band in the stands — Alcaraz was superb.

He never faced a break point. He won the point on 10 of 11 trips to the net. He made just 13 unforced errors, 10 fewer than Auger-Aliassime, who also lost to Alcaraz at this year’s French Open.

“I just couldn’t find a way to be comfortable in any pattern, any position. Whether it was trying to dominate the forehand cross-court or change of direction, the forehand inside-out, the backhand side,” Auger-Aliassime said. “Every aspect. The movement. The defense. I was dominated.”

Later Friday, Auger-Aliassime went back on court and teamed with Gabriela Dabrowski to give Canada the bronze in mixed doubles with a 6-3, 7-6 (2) win over Demi Schuurs and Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands.

Auger-Aliassime’s best showing in singles at a major tournament was a semifinal appearance at the 2021 U.S. Open. Auger-Aliassime made it to that round back then when Alcaraz, just 18 at the time, stopped playing in the second set of their quarterfinal because of an injured leg muscle.

“He’s improved a lot, every time we’ve played,” said Auger-Aliassime, who beat Alcaraz in each of their first three head-to-heat contests but now has lost the four since, all in straight sets. “I don’t have the solutions right now.”

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The Alcaraz on display during his Olympics debut is, indeed, much more of a finished product, someone who has won 12 consecutive matches at Roland Garros and collected a second consecutive title at Wimbledon last month, too.

Alcaraz defeated 24-time Slam champion Novak Djokovic in both of those finals at the All England Club, and there could be a rematch for the men’s gold on Sunday. That’s because Djokovic, a 37-year-old from Serbia, was scheduled to play Lorenzo Musetti of Italy in Friday’s second Olympic semifinal.

It was unclear how fit Djokovic would be for that match, because he felt what he described as “sharp pain” in his surgically repaired right knee while getting past Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarterfinals Thursday night. Musetti eliminated Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Alexander Zverev.

The women’s singles final is Saturday, with Zheng Qinwen of China playing against Donna Vekic of Croatia.

Iga Swiatek of Poland, who lost to Zheng in the semifinals, earned the bronze with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia on Friday. It’s Poland’s first tennis medal at any Olympics.

In the men’s doubles semifinals Friday, Matt Ebden and John Peers of Australia defeated Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul of the United States 7-5, 6-2. Ebden and Peers will go up against another American duo, fourth-seeded Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram, for the gold.

In women’s doubles, the final will be Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini of Italy against Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider, a pair of Russians who are competing as Individual Neutral Athletes, known by the French acronym AIN.

Russia and Belarus were banned by the International Olympic Committee from team sports at the Paris Games because of the war in Ukraine that began in February 2022. Individual athletes with Russian or Belarusian passports were allowed to compete as neutrals if they qualified and then were approved for entry to the Olympics.

Andreeva and Shnaider beat Cristina Bucsa and Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain 6-1, 6-2 in the semifinals; Errani and Paolini defeated Karolina Muchova and Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-2.

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games