Carlos Alcaraz is the red-hot favorite for Olympic gold, after his joyous wins at the French Open and Wimbledon.
There’s been nobody who’s had a more glorious summer than Carlos Alcaraz.
After he bulldozed past Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final to condemn him to his second heaviest defeat in a grand slam final, he watched his beloved Spain win Euro 2024.
The youngest man to have completed the ‘Channel Slam’, Alcaraz is becoming rather au fait with the history books.
His entertaining Olympic doubles journey with Rafael Nadal came to an end on Wednesday after being outplayed by a far more experienced American pair.
With his singles victory earlier in the day against Roman Safiullin, the 21-year-old re-opened his history-making account.
What record has Carlos Alcaraz broken now!
The best drop-shot? The most contagious smile? The easiest to lip-read when shouting ‘Vamos?’ Alcaraz is quite clearly the frontrunner in all these categories.
The young Spaniard is flying and while main rival Jannik Sinner continues to recover from tonsillitis, he has set upon extending his list of major titles.
With the 21-year-old through to the last eight however, he becomes the youngest man to reach that stage in singles since Djokovic in 2008, where he won bronze.
Now able to pour all his energy into just the singles, Alcaraz will face American Tommy Paul for a spot in the last four, with the pair only recently meeting at Wimbledon at the very same stage.
Overcoming Safiullin was a bigger achievement, with the pair having only met once before, in a contest the Russian surprisingly won quite convincingly.
Will it be gold for Carlos Alcaraz and how will he get there?
The hot favorite coming into the Olympics has remained so throughout, having looked relatively untroubled all week.
Inevitably however, you end up encountering a difficult opponent and in Paul, Alcaraz might have his work cut out somewhat.
While the American is no clay-court specialist, he has found success over the Spaniard previously, winning two out of their five meetings.
Casper Ruud and Felix Auger-Alliasime will battle it out for a maiden Olympic semi-final meeting with Alcaraz provided he gets through.
If there’s an author to this Olympic story, Djokovic will be waiting in the final, raring to win the gold medal that has eluded him so cruelly.
Receive exclusive tennis news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
