LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Carlos Alcaraz swept into the Wimbledon semifinals for a third successive year as the defending champion demolished Cameron Norrie, while world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka survived a major scare to reach the last four on Tuesday.
Alcaraz needed just 99 minutes to win 6-2, 6-3, 6-3 in his most commanding performance in this year’s tournament.
The Spanish second seed dropped four sets in a series of scrappy displays during his run to the Last Eight.
But Alcaraz was back to his imperious best in the quarter-finals, blasting 39 winners against the overwhelmed British world No. 61, setting up a last-four clash with American fifth seed Taylor Fritz.
Alcaraz is on a career-best 23-match winning run since losing to Holger Rune in the Barcelona final in April — a superb streak which has brought him titles at the French Open, the Rome Masters and Monte Carlo.
The Spaniard, who vanquished Novak Djokovic in the last two Wimbledon finals, has won 34 of his 37 Tour-level matches on grass, while his last defeat at the All England Club came against Jannik Sinner in the fourth round in 2022.
“To be able to play another semifinal here at Wimbledon is super special,” Alcaraz said.
“It’s going to be great. I’m really happy with the way I played against a really difficult player.”
Wimbledon’s controversial line technology system malfunctioned again as Fritz beat Russian 17th seed Karen Khachanov 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (7/4) to reach his first Wimbledon semifinal.
Swedish umpire Louise Azemar Engzell had to stop a point in the opening game of the fourth set on Court One when “fault” was incorrectly called after a Fritz forehand landed well inside the baseline.
The call of “fault,” rather than “out,” and positioning of the ball suggested the system was still tracking Fritz’s serve as opposed to a rally and the point had to be replayed.
Tournament organizers were forced to apologize and make a change to the system to avoid further issues after a major error in Sonay Kartal’s fourth-round defeat to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the women’s draw.
A fully automated system has replaced human line judges at Wimbledon for the first time this year, in line with the Australian Open and the US Open.
Tournament organizers claimed the system had failed to reset because the ball from Fritz’s first serve was still being retrieved when he started lining up his second.
“The player’s service motion began while the BBG (ball boy or girl) was still crossing the net and therefore the system didn’t recognize the start of the point,” an All England Club statement said.