Us Open: Alcaraz beats Tiafoe in 5 sets and goes to the final, he can become the youngest number 1

Another marathon, another epic match of five sets promotes the baby phenomenon Carlos Alcaraz to the final of the United States Open who beats the brave and never domineering Frances Tiafoe for 6-7 6-3 6-1 6-7 6-3 and arrives at his first Grand Slam final with the tempting chance to return home from New York with the record for the youngest number 1 in history.

The race

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A match fought with bullets, as fought is a first set immediately pulled. On 3 equal Alcaraz begins to attack the answer with more determination, he arrives at the double break point that Tiafoe cancels. At 5-6 the situation in the limelight: it is the Spaniard who offers his rival a break point which is also a set point. Alcaraz pulls two winning services out of the hat and extends the set at the tie-break. Here Tiafoe still seems infallible, as in all 6 tie-breaks played and won in the tournament. He goes up to 4-1, reaches the triple set point, is recovered by Alcaraz, but transforms the fourth occasion and enters the game with a set advantage. On the momentum, Tiafoe arrives at the break ball to go up 2-1 and serve, but Alcaraz wakes up just enough to reverse the game’s inertia, fly to 5-2 (after saving two dangerous counter-break balls) and equalize the score of sets. It is the watershed of the game. Tiafoe goes out and from the chance he had to get back into the game at 5-4 of the second, the American suffers a devastating run of 15 points to 1 that bury him 4-0. Alcaraz is totally in charge of the field and above all he is ahead 2 sets to 1. The Spaniard misses two balls of 3-0 at the beginning of the fourth set and Tiafoe, encouraged by the public, comes back to the surface. The match is fun again, Alcaraz goes ahead with a break at the beginning of the fourth set, then returns it and on 5-4 reaches the match point. Tiafoe, however, scored a counter-damped with all the trimmings, refusing defeat. We arrive at the tie-break and once again and when Alcaraz misses a not impossible forehand, the whole Arthur Ashe explodes: he goes to the fifth set. Alcaraz opens it again with a break, returns it, but then it is he who has more fuel in his body. With 8 points in a row, the Spaniard takes the break advantage again, which this time confirms right under the banner of the finish line. At the fourth match point Alcaraz touches his first Grand Slam final.

Summit hunting

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Whoever wins on Sunday between Carlos Alcaraz and Casper Ruud will not only be the 152nd Grand Slam champion in history but will also be the new world number 1. At 19 years, 4 months and 6 days, on the 21st anniversary of the Twin Towers tragedy, Alcaraz could become the youngest number 1 in history by breaking Lleyton Hewitt’s record of being world number 1 for the first time in 2001 at 20 years and 8 months. But not only Alcaraz could also become the second youngest champion in the history of the United States Open after Pete Sampras, king in 1990 at 19. The fourth youngest of the Open Era after Chang (Roland Garros 1989), Becker (Wimbledon 1985), Wilander (Roland Garros 1982), Borg (Roland Garros 1974), Nadal (Roland Garros 2005) and Sampras (US Open 1990) .