Alcaraz shatters records to reach AO quarters

Carlos Alcaraz completed his Grand Slam full deck by reaching his maiden Australian Open quarter final.

The Spaniard also became the youngest Open Era player to reach the 4th round in seven consecutive editions of a Slam.

The No. 2 seed easily beat Miomir Kecmanovic 6-4, 6-4, 6-0 in under two hours on Rod Laver Arena.

The 20-year-old reigning Wimbledon champion missed the season opener here in 2023 because of injury but is rapidly making up for lost time in 2024.

The trickiest moment of Alcaraz’s  evening came during the post match on court interview with Jim Courier.

When asked if he any watched the other matches on TV, Carlos rattled off  all his favourite ATP players.

Courier then asked, “and the WTA?”  The Spaniard seemed lost for words, and Courier concluded the interview to spare his blushes.

Alcaraz dropped just one set on his way to the last eight.

At just 20 years of age that record previously belonged to Bjorn Borg who achieved this feat between the French Open in 1975 and Wimbledon 1977 when the Swede was 21 years old.

“I don’t give it importance, the records I want to aspire to are Novak’s, I aim for those throughout my career,” Alcaraz said after his match.

With Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev and Carlos Alcaraz all progressing  this year’s AO is the first time in the Open Era where all of the top six seeds have reached the men’s singles quarter final at this event.

Alacaraz added “I’m improving day by day and even with the movements I’m making things better. I’m getting used to these courts and I hope I can still improve.

Goals? My goal is to maintain a high level throughout the season. After Wimbledon I lost matches that I shouldn’t have lost but this is tennis, these things happen. Now my goal is to do as well as last year and correct the things I did wrong.

Kecmanovic has come back from very tough matches and this is certainly better for me. Two years ago we faced each other in Miami and he played a great match, I have to play my best tennis to advance to the next round,”

His quarter final opponent Alexander Zverev is there for the third time, surviving five set marathons on the way, including a four-hour, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (3) fourth-round victory over Brit Cameron Norrie.

So focussed was Zverev on his match preparation, the post-match interviewer reminded him that “today is your dad’s birthday”

Clearly embarrassed as his dad was watching from his player box, he joined in with the crowd to sing “happy birthday!”

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