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Reigning Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz hopes his fourth-round victory over Frenchman Ugo Humbert is a good omen ahead of Spain’s Euro 2024 semi-final on Tuesday.
Alcaraz had his serve broken five times by Humbert but regrouped to book a quarter-final berth, which will take place on the same day Spain face France in Munich for a place in the final.
With Spain set to kick off at 8pm on Tuesday, world number three Alcaraz is hopeful All England Club organisers will schedule his last-eight tie for earlier in the day.
“Hopefully they’re going to get the same results as me today,” Alcaraz said with a smile.
“I didn’t think about it until now. Yeah, I won in the tennis part, so hopefully the Spanish team is going to win the football part.
“Yeah, I have a really good relationship with a few players of the team. In particularly, with Alvaro Morata. He’s a really good friend.
“I know they are supporting me when I’m playing matches or I’m playing tournaments. It’s my turn.
“Hopefully on Tuesday we are not going to play at the same time, but let’s see. Hopefully I will be able to see a little bit from the match.”
Alcaraz had spent nearly four hours on court during a dramatic win over Frances Tiafoe on Friday and looked in a hurry to progress this time when he raced into a two-set lead.
After slow starts in his previous three matches, winning first-set tie-breaks against qualifier Mark Lajal and unseeded Aleksandar Vukic before he lost the opener to Tiafoe, it was a different story this time.
With the Centre Court roof closed, Alcaraz broke in the fifth game to move one set up and Humbert had barely laid a glove on his opponent’s service game by this point.
This changed midway through the second set when a marathon game saw Humbert create four break-point opportunities at 2-2, but Alcaraz dug deep to repel the Metz left-hander.
Brilliant net play thwarted the final chance before Alcaraz showed the ruthlessness of a three-time grand slam champion with a break to take the set.
Humbert sent a simple volley wide to gift Alcaraz the break, with the current Wimbledon champion earning the adulation of Centre Court after he twice scrambled across the baseline to return before a third slide along the grass helped force the error.
However, Alcaraz was broken at the start of the third and two more followed, the last when Humbert sent a sweet backhand down the line.
A chaotic period followed with breaks exchanged at the start of the fourth set but after Alcaraz established a 3-1 lead the world number 16 won three games in a row and was 0-40 during the eighth.
Here, Alcaraz produced two aces for a huge hold and a sumptuous forehand secured another, which was followed by a decisive break.
Match point was brought up with a supreme drop shot before another ace, this time only 103mph, sent Alcaraz through.
Alcaraz said: “I had 40-love down in the fourth set.
“It was kind of I increase my tennis, increase my intensity and got the win at the end.
“Yeah, really happy that it didn’t affect me at all, the third set and the problems that I had in the fourth set and I stayed really strong mentally.”
