MELBOURNE: Carlos Alcaraz's bid to become the youngest player to complete a career Grand Slam at the Australian Open remains on track as Jack Draper was forced to withdraw from his fourth-round clash in Melbourne on Sunday.
The Spaniard led 7–5, 6–1 when Draper, who had played five sets in each of his first three rounds at a hard-court major, was forced to stop. Draper later revealed that he had been managing tendinitis in his hip throughout the week. Alcaraz is now in his 10th Grand Slam quarterfinal, where he will face record 10-time champion Novak Djokovic or Jiri Lehka.
In his on-court interview Alcaraz said, “I'm happy to play in another quarter-final in Australia but a little sad for Jack, he's a good person. He doesn't deserve to get injured.
“He didn't start the season well because of the injury. We should have spent a good week of preseason (together), but we couldn't because of the injury. I'm a little sad for him, but I'm sure “That he will come back stronger and I want to wish him a speedy recovery.”
Draper's retirement came after Alcaraz had recovered from the first set deficit in spectacular fashion inside Rod Laver Arena. The third seed raced to an early 5-2 lead and was in complete control when he produced a frustrating, disorganized sequence of games that saw the Briton level at 5-5.
However, from there on out, Alcaraz performed brilliantly. They won eight of the next nine games, while Draper, who received an off-court medical timeout at the end of the first set, began to feel fatigue from his opening week heroics in Melbourne.
Alcaraz said, “I'm happy with the level I'm playing on the court. In Australia I feel very comfortable outside the court. I think it's very good. Physically I feel very good.” So it's very important to feel good physically in the second week of the Grand Slam, because the matches are more difficult now. I'm just prepared. I feel like I'm doing very well off the court as well.
“I'm excited to play in my second quarter-final in Australia and hopefully go even further this year.” By reaching the last eight at a major for the 10th time, Alcaraz tied the Open Era record for most Grand Slam quarterfinals reached by a person age 21 or younger. Ranked third in the ATP rankings, he is looking to complete a full set of major singles titles following his victories at Roland Garros (2024), Wimbledon (2023, 2024) and the US Open (2022).
Alcaraz will now prepare for his eighth Lexus ATP head-to-head clash with his great rival Djokovic or a clash against 24th seed Lehka. Djokovic and Lehka will meet in their fourth-round match during Sunday night's session.
Alcaraz said, “I'm definitely going to watch that match. Now I have to perform as well as I can with my team. I'm going to try to find time to watch it. That guy's name is Novak. “There's Djokovic, I've played against him a few times. Also against Jiri Lehka – it's going to be a really interesting match to watch and I hope people enjoy that match as much as I do.”
Comments are closed.