Carlos Alcaraz reaches first grand slam semifinal after marathon, late-night finish against Jannik Sinner
SAN FRANCISCO — Carlos Alcaraz had little sleep on the final day of his journey to his first Major championship, or so he thought. At the time, he had just fallen an hour behind his scheduled arrival time to San Jose, California, for Sunday’s ATP 500 final. But the world No. 11 had a backup plan. He turned on his laptop, fired up his YouTube account, and began uploading highlights of his semifinal against Jannik Sinner.
By the time Alcaraz reached his 15th Grand Slam semifinal, he had recorded more than 700 hours of video from a trip that had cost him more than $10,000. The stream of footage eventually garnered 2.5 million views, a YouTube record set by the American tennis star and tennis legend Serena Williams.
Not bad for a young player preparing to try to become the first South American to win a Grand Slam title.
“When I got there, I was so tired because I was traveling so much, and I just wanted to play,” said Alcaraz, a 21-year-old from Argentina who is now a top-10 player, with a ranking well above that of Andy Murray, the British player who set a new record with a victory over Roger Federer in the first night, final, Saturday. “I wanted to go there and just enjoy what I was going to encounter until it was over.”
Alcaraz, who won his first major, the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, in August, played the day and all night before winning a match in the second-to-last match of a day’s play and then a total of 16 matches in all.
On Saturday he won a second-round match over sixth-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber
