PARIS — Carlos Alcaraz produced another miracle in the French capital as the seven-time Grand Slam champion fended off two match points to beat Taylor Fritz and reach the Paris Masters semi-finals.
The 23-year-old fought back to win 6-7 (10/12), 7-5, 6-3 to advance to the last four of the event for the first time.
He will next take on former world number two Casper Ruud on Saturday after the Norwegian eliminated Portuguese lucky loser Nuno Borges 7-6 (7/5), 6-4.
In scenes reminiscent of his iconic French Open final comeback win over Jannik Sinner last season, when he saved three championship points, Alcaraz again wowed the crowd in Paris as he snatched another improbable victory from the jaws of defeat.
“Probably this match is going to be one of the most special matches that I ever played, and I’m going to remember this match for a long time,” Alcaraz said according to AFP.
Despite only playing one match en route to the quarter-finals, Alcaraz showed no signs of rust as he seized his first break opportunity in the fifth game of the opening set, whipping a forehand passing shot around the stranded Fritz.
The Spaniard’s serve then started to wobble and Fritz pounced to break to love and level at 5-5.
In a tie-break of thrills and spills, both players had set points come and go before Alcaraz dumped a forehand wide to cede the opener to the Californian.
After recovering from 0-40 to hold early in the second set, Alcaraz pointed to his ear and held his fist aloft in a bid to get the Parisian crowd going — the first but not last call-back to his five-set Roland Garros epic.
But he continued to struggle to make inroads on Fritz’s serve and it was the American who produced the first break of the set in the seventh game.
