Carlos Alcaraz is into yet another semi-final on clay, having just won his Italian Open quarter-final match against Jack Draper.
Alcaraz has reached an 11th ATP Masters semi-final with the success, having beaten Draper 6-4, 6-4 in Rome.
Italian Lorenzo Musetti now awaits Alcaraz in the last four of the tournament, which is taking place shortly before the French Open.
Draper admitted to being negative against Alcaraz, with the Briton having entered the event as the Madrid Open runner-up.
The ATP number five lost the Madrid Open final to Casper Ruud earlier this month, with Ruud now meeting Jannik Sinner in the Italian Open quarter-finals.
Carlos Alcaraz shares verdict on Italian Open fans after reaching semi-finals
Alcaraz meanwhile is likely to face a raucous crowd against Musetti given the latter’s nationality, but the Spaniard has loved the support in Rome until this stage.
Discussing the supporters after overcoming Draper, he said: “Well, I think the people here are incredibly good.
“They have a lot of passion in sports in general. Like once the football, I saw the atmosphere there, it was huge.
“Here in the tennis, we could see the atmosphere in every court. I think it is great for the tennis player, for the tennis, for everyone having the Italian people around.
“I’m just super, super grateful for the support that I’m receiving in every practice, in the matches. I just enjoy playing in front of them. I just hopefully keep it going.”
Carlos Alcaraz shares how he secured Indian Wells revenge against Jack Draper
Alcaraz can undoubtedly expect many more meetings with Draper in the near future, with the Briton having recently risen to number five in the world rankings.
The Spaniard occupies third spot, with the pair having already met six times in their relatively brief careers so far.
READ MORE: The Italian Open slammed for ‘absolutely disgraceful’ decision they have made involving Casper Ruud
And it is Alcaraz who holds the bragging rights at this stage, boasting a 4-2 win-loss record over the British number one.
It was, however, Draper who won their Indian Wells semi-final in March, with Alcaraz now successfully enacting revenge over his rival.
Analysing the toughest part of their latest meeting, he said: “Well, I think today was a really good match. I played great.
“I’m really proud about the way that I approached the match. I remember Indian Wells was really difficult for me the whole day before the match dealing with the nerves.
“It was really stressful. Today I approached the match in a different way, which I’m really proud about. I just tried to show my best tennis since the first point until the last point. I think it works pretty well.”
And sharing insight into his mental approach, Alcaraz noted: “I tried not to think that it was a really important match.
“I was just trying to go there and play, trying to enjoy playing that match, not thinking about the results at all.
“I just tried to do the shots in the game that I like playing, that I like to do. Try to smile, have joy on the court. That for me was the most important thing that I was trying to think during the whole match.”
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