Carlos Alcaraz has learned to glide over the clay in Paris. Roland Garros is the fetish tournament for Spanish tennis players, with champions such as Manolo Santana, Sergi Bruguera, Carlos Moyá and Juan Carlos Ferrero. Then came the empire of Rafa Nadal, champion in Paris 14 times. The baton has now fallen into the hands of Alcaraz.

The Spanish tennis player made his debut in Paris at the age of 17. Each year he arrived later and later at the tournament, until he won it in 2024, at the age of 21. On his way to glory came Felix Auger-Aliassime, in the fourth round. It was one of the most comfortable victories, 6-3, 6-3, 6-1.

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Today in the semi-finals of the Olympic tournament, Alcaraz brought out an aggressive and technically sensational version to go through to the last round without complications. The 6-1, 6-1 scoreline shows that the Canadian realised that his weapons were not enough to weaken his opponent. The match for the bronze medal in the mixed doubles was surely on the American's mind. In singles he will fight for the same metal.

Alcaraz has yet to lose a set in the singles tournament. He has won five matches with authority, and only twice has he had to resort to a tie-break to win a set, against Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands in the second round and Tommy Paul of the United States in the quarter-finals.

This year he has already succeeded Nadal as the Spanish winner at Roland Garros. On Sunday he will have the opportunity to do the same at the Olympic Games. Nadal is the only Spanish tennis player in history to have won an individual tennis gold medal, in Beijing 2008. That is the next challenge for Alcaraz.

Djokovic's last chance

Alcaraz is ranked number three in the ATP Rankings. His opponent in the final will be number two. Novak Djokovic has for the first time qualified for a final in his fifth Olympic Games. In the first, Beijing 2008, he won bronze. In London 2012 and Tokyo 2020 he lost the semi-finals and also the match for third place.

At the age of 37, it is logical to think that the Serbian player will never play in the Games. This may be his last chance and that is why he has left Musetti no chance of winning. The first set was quite even. Each one was holding his serve until Djokovic was leading 5-4 and the Italian was serving. He won the first three points: 40-0. It smelt like a tie-break. Musetti began to make mistakes, lost five consecutive points on his serve and lost the first set 6-4.

In the second set, Djokovic took advantage of his opponent's doubts. He managed to break the Italian much earlier. They were 2-2 and the Serb played perfectly his tricks to get ahead. Musetti did not win any more games in the match. The 6-2 closed the second semifinal.

Sunday will be Djokovic's chance to crown his sporting career. Olympic gold is the biggest thing he is missing. The Serb is the player with more Grand Slam tournaments, 24, the one with more ATP Tour Masters 1000, 40, the tennis player with more weeks as world number one, 428, has won seven ATP Tour Finals and has also won the Davis Cup. On Sunday, Alcaraz awaits him.

Despite the Spaniard's youth, there have already been six meetings between the two players. They have won three each. The last one was the Wimbledon final, where the Spaniard won. In fact, there are already two finals on the London grass and both have been won by Alcaraz. At Roland Garros, on the same court of these Games, they have also met once. That one was won by Djokovic.

Men's doubles final decided

Australia and the United States will play for gold in the men's doubles final on Saturday. The pair that eliminated Alcaraz and Nadal, Americans Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram, reached the final on Thursday, after a comfortable 6-2, 6-2 win over Czechs Tomas Machac and Adam Pavlasek.

Today, Friday, the second semi-final was played. There was a possibility of an American final, but Australians Matthew Ebden and John Peers managed to avoid it. They beat Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul 7-5, 6-2. On Saturday, the matches for the three medals at Roland Garros will be played.