Carlos Alcaraz finger-wagged the crowd, beat Jiri Lehecka to the net and cruised into the semifinals at the U.S. Open.
The second-seeded Spaniard beat Lehecka 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 in the quarterfinals on Tuesday, making some highlight-reel shots and putting his hand to his ear afterward to encourage more cheers from fans at Arthur Ashe Stadium. It’s his first hard-court semifinal appearance at a major since winning his first Grand Slam title at the U.S. Open in 2023.
Alcaraz is just 22 years old and is in the semifinals at a major for the ninth time. Only Rafael Nadal with 10 has more before turning 23.
Next up for Alcaraz is Novak Djokovic, the 24-time Grand Slam champion who knocked him out of the Australian Open quarterfinals in January and beat him for the gold medal at the Paris Olympics last year.
Djokovic got past Taylor Fritz 6-3, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 at night. Alcaraz would supplant Jannik Sinner — whom he lost to in the Wimbledon final and beat in the French Open final — atop the rankings if he wins the U.S. Open for a second time.
Before facing Fritz or Djokovic on Friday night, Alcaraz plans to play golf Wednesday with 2017 Masters champion Sergio Garcia. He thinks his countryman owes him more than a few strokes.
Jessica Pegula makes the semifinals again
On the women’s side, Jessica Pegula broke through her quarterfinal wall again at the U.S. Open, defeating Barbora Krejcikova 6-3, 6-3 to get to the semifinals at a Grand Slam tournament for just the second time in her career.
She failed to advance into the semis in her first 22 main draw appearances at a major before reaching the final at Flushing Meadows a year ago, when she lost to Aryna Sabalenka. They’ll meet again in the semifinals on Thursday after Sabalenka advanced in a walkover when Marketa Vondrousova withdrew because of injury.
Pegula, who was eliminated in the fourth round at the Australian Open, the third round at the French Open and the first round at Wimbledon, is the first woman to make back-to-back U.S. Open semifinals without losing a set since Serena Williams from 2011-14. Pegula, 31, is seeded fourth at the U.S. Open and aiming for her first Grand Slam championship. She and No. 8 Amanda Anisimova are the only Americans left in the women’s singles field.
Krejcikova knocked out one of them, Taylor Townsend, who failed to convert eight match points when they met in the quarterfinals on Sunday. Pegula was not perfect, but she played well enough to stay in control at all times and broke Krejcikova one final time to end the match in under 90 minutes — on her first match point attempt.
Venus Williams and Leylah Fernandez lost to the top-seeded pair of Townsend and Katerina Siniakova 6-1, 6-2 in the women’s doubles quarterfinals, ending the 45-year-old Williams’ first Grand Slam tournament in two years.
Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada and Alex de Minaur of Australia kick things off on Ashe, followed by Anisimova against second-seeded Iga Swiatek. Naomi Osaka, fresh off beating Coco Gauff, faces Karolina Muchova to open the night session, followed by men’s No. 1 seed Jannik Sinner against fellow Italian Lorenzo Musetti.
India’s Yuki Bhambri makes maiden Grand Slam quarterfinal
India’s Yuki Bhambri and his partner Michael Venus of New Zealand progressed to the men’s doubles quarterfinals of the US Open.
Seeded 14th, Bhambri and Venus defeated the No. 4 seeds, Germany’s Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz, in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4.
Bhambri, India’s top-ranked men’s doubles tennis player at world No. 32, has reached the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career.
Last year, Bhambri partnered with French tennis player Albano Olivetti for the US Open and made the pre-quarterfinals. The duo lost to Spain’s Marcel Granollers and Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos in straight sets. Earlier, Bhambri and Venus defeated the unseeded pair of Colombia’s Gonzalo Escobar and Mexico’s Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela 6-1, 7-5 in an hour and 25 minutes at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre to progress to the pre-quarterfinals .
The Indo-Kiwi pair will next play the 11th-seeded team of the 41-year-old American veteran Rajeev Ram and his partner Nikola Mektic of Croatia.
Ram and Mektic needed three tight sets—and nearly three hours—to edge past the unseeded team of Brazil’s Fernando Romboli and Britain’s John-Patrick Smith, 6-7(7), 7-5, 7-5.
Notably, Ram secured his 500th tour-level win with his second-round win on. Notably, he reached the milestone at Flushing Meadows, where he won three consecutive titles with Salisbury from 2021-23. Ram became the seventh active man to reach 500 tour-level doubles wins and he is the only active American with that many victories.
Earlier, Indian veteran Rohan Bopanna and his partner Romain Arneodo of Monaco crashed out in the opening round on Saturday. Arjun Kadhe and his partner, Diego Hidalgo of Ecuador, also made a first-round exit.
On Sunday, Anirudh Chandrasekar and Vijay Sundar Prashanth’s run came to an end with a 6-4, 6-3 defeat to Brazil’s Fernando Romboli and Australia’s John-Patrick Smith.