Carlos Alcaraz remains on course for his third consecutive Wimbledon title. The defending champion defeated British home player Cameron Norrie in the quarter-finals in less than two hours: 6-2, 6-3 and 6-3.
Alcaraz had start-up problems in the opening round against Fabio Fognini last week, in which he lost two sets, but now the number two in the world has gotten up to steam on the sacred grass in London.
After Olivier Tarvet (3-0), Jan-Lennard Struff (3-1) and Andrey Rublev (3-1), now Norrie had to believe it. Alcaraz proved to be in a class of his own in the opening set, in which he broke the Brit twice, and he continued that form into the remaining sets. He hit no fewer than 39 winners.
In the semi-finals, Alcaraz will play against the American Taylor Fritz, who earlier in the day won in four sets against the Russian Karen Khachanov (6-3, 6-4, 1-6 and 7-6 (4)). Fritz is number five in the world. He has never reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon before.
Alcaraz hopes to win Wimbledon for the third time in a row. That would not be a unique achievement. Björn Borg and Roger Federer once won the Grand Slam tournament in London five times in a row, making them record holders since the professional era.
The other semi-final may be between Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner. The two tennis champions are in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon and will play each other if they both win. Djokovic plays against the Italian Flavio Cobolli in the last eight and Sinner meets Ben Shelton from the United States.