Novak Djokovic on Friday reached his seventh final at Roland Garros in dramatic circumstances when world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz suffered “whole body” cramping, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and China’s Wang Xinyu made it through to the women’s doubles finals.
Djokovic, 36, triumphed in their semi-final 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 to become the oldest man in 93 years to reach the championship match where he would be bidding for a third Roland Garros title and record-setting 23rd men’s Grand Slam crown.
The drama unfolded just as Djokovic had leveled the third set at 1-1 with the first two sets split, but with Alcaraz seemingly in the ascendancy in the sweltering 33°C Paris heat.
Photo: Reuters
Alcaraz, 16 years Djokovic’s junior, pulled up clutching his right calf. He forfeited his next service game because he sought treatment courtside before a scheduled change of ends and could not receive a medical timeout for cramping.
As boos and jeers rained down, Djokovic, playing in his 45th Grand Slam semi-final, swept the next five games to open a two sets to one lead.
Alcaraz left the court for a 5-minute bathroom break, but his physical limitations easily opened the door for Djokovic to coast into his 34th Grand Slam final, having wrapped up 10 of the last 11 games of the semi-final.
“Tough luck for Carlos, the last thing you want is cramping. I feel for him and hope he recovers and comes back very soon,” Djokovic said. “Respect for him in fighting until the end. I told him at the net that he is very young and he will win this many times.”
“He was the better player in the second set. I knew I had to be more aggressive and then match and better his intensity,” he added.
Djokovic is to face last year’s runner-up Casper Ruud in today’s championship match where he has the opportunity of becoming the first man to win all four Slam titles at least three times.
“It was really tough for me to move at the third set, and in the fourth set let’s say I had a 1 percent chance,” Alcaraz said.
He said that facing Djokovic for the first time at a Grand Slam caused a unique tension which contributed to his physical ailment.
“The tension of the first set, the second set, it was really intense. Really good rallies, tough rallies, dropshots, sprints,” he said. “Novak is a legend of our sport. If someone says that he goes onto the court with no nerves playing against Novak, he lies. Of course playing a semi-final of a Grand Slam, you have a lot of nerves, but even more facing Novak. That’s the truth.”
Ruud thrashed Alexander Zverev 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 to make his third Grand Slam final in his past five tournaments. He was runner-up to Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros last year and then lost to Alcaraz in the US Open final.
In the women’s doubles, unseeded Hsieh and Wang upset sixth-seeded Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 to make it through to today’s final.
They are to face Canada’s Leylah Fernandez and the US’ Taylor Townsend, who beat second-seeded Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula 6-0, 6-4 on Friday.
Thirty-seven-year-old Hsieh is a four-time Grand Slam doubles champion, but recently took an 18-month break from the tour, returning to the court in Madrid early last month.
Wang, 21, is ranked No. 80 in singles and 105 in doubles, but with her new partner, Hsieh has reached the finals at Roland Garros for the first time since she won the title with Peng Shuai in 2014.
“I’m the person who likes to enjoy, so I have not been feeling so much pressure, this whole tournament I was quite relaxed,” the official Roland Garros Web site quoted Hsieh as saying.
“I know anything can happen so I just try to enjoy and push my partner to do everything on the court,” she told Roland Garros, jokingly. “You know when you play with a younger player, the good thing is that you can tell them: ‘Run!’”
“Actually she takes everything,” Wang said. “When we are hitting baseline, I say ‘Me, me, me’ and she’s hitting it already.”
Additional reporting AP and staff writer
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