By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday March 31, 2022
Carlos Alcaraz edged Miomir Kecmanovic in three gripping sets to reach the semifinals in Miami.
The list of impressive accolades continues to grow for Carlos Alcaraz. The 18-year-old gutted out a tension-packed 6-7(5), 6-3, 7-6(5) victory over Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic to become the third-youngest Miami Open men’s singles semifinalist in history.
It took two hours, 23-minutes, some grade "A" punch and grace under pressure to get past a scintillating Kecmanovic, the 22-year-old producing pinpoint groundstrokes that kept Alcaraz running a track meet behind his baseline for much of the match.
But Alcaraz, teenage wunderkind that he is, loves to run. He did so with verve on Thursday evening. And he never let slip his grip during an electric third set that featured zero break points and plenty of deafening crowd noise.
In the end it was Alcaraz, by a nose, rallying twice from mini-break down to take a buzzing tiebreak. The Spaniard won the final four points to seal the victory, showing more daring and execution on the biggest points than his foe to set a semifinal with defending champion Hubert Hurkacz.
What Next for the Rising Spaniard?
Alcaraz has been quite the story in 2022. He improves to 16-2 on the season, his only blemishes to Matteo Berrettini in a fifth set tiebreak at the Australian Open and a third-set defeat at the hands of Rafael Nadal in the semifinal at Indian Wells two weeks ago.
Alcaraz is growing so fast he may have already left the level he reached at Indian Wells behind.
He’ll embrace the underdog mentality against last year’s champion Friday evening, and if he wins he’ll stand alone with Nadal as one of only two 18-year-old men's singles finalists at the Miami Open.
Even when we purposely avoid comparing Alcaraz to the legendary King of Clay, Alcaraz finds a way to gain mention among his compatriot with his precocious achievements. Just two weeks ago Nadal himself heaped the following praise on the young talent:
“I think he's unstoppable in terms of his career. He has all the ingredients. He has the passion. He's humble enough to work hard. No, he's a good guy."
Those are heavy words coming from a 21-time Grand Slam champion that typically keeps it buttoned up when talking about his competition.
Nadal isn't the only one raving about Alcaraz's game. It's hard to watch him and not imagine the possibilities, and that will likely be the case against Hurkacz, whether he wins or loses.