Alcaraz 'kills' the last father in New York

BarcelonaThe generation of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner has earned the right to be considered the successors of the historic generation of Roger Federer (retired in 2022), Rafa Nadal (retired in 2024), and Novak Djokovic. The Serbian is the only one who still refuses to stop being present and become history. The results give him some support while his body accumulates complaints and insults. But Alcaraz and Sinner show no mercy, not even for their professional "fathers." The Murcian tennis player defeated Djokovic 4-6, 6-7 (4), 2-6 in 2 hours and 23 minutes to book a ticket to the US Open final without having to waste his most lethal weapon against the winner of 24 Grand Slams: extending the clock.

The match, beyond the extraordinary tennis qualities of both, was a matter of youth versus age. 22 years old versus 38. A best-of-five-sets match played in the early afternoon of a late summer day in New York can become a torture for someone who needs to savor victory long before the party lights come up, when it's most likely all defeat. Alcaraz, aware of Djokovic's fear, scared him by getting a break when some hadn't even turned on the television yet. The rest of the first set was a script written by someone who doesn't believe in dramatic twists. Alcaraz led 4-6 to tell Djokovic that if he wanted another Grand Slam final, all he could do was cling to physical suffering.

But the Serbian, an old cat, did the same as the youngster to start the second set: breakThe difference is that when Djokovic had Alcaraz at his weakest moment of the tournament, at 3-0, he allowed him to get up from the mud and the set was tied. The Murcian ended up winning in a tie-break Long, precise points that exposed the physical shortcomings of Djokovic, who, when the going gets intense at this twilight of his career, finds his legs moving at the pace of a Ford Fiesta and his mind at that of a Porsche Cayenne. Frustration does the rest.

Aware of his opponent's excitement, Alcaraz appeared in the third set. The fruit was ripe. The Murcian hadn't lost a set in this US Open and will enter Sunday's final in the same circumstances: without having lost a single one. It was of no use that the Arthur Ashe crowd cheered Djokovic as if he were an American, eager for a longer reward in exchange for his entry. The passage of time is the cruelest thing in this world, and Alcaraz was the most inhuman executioner.