Carlos Alcaraz: Smiling is the key to everything

The Wimbledon top seed reached his first semi-final at the grand slam when he eased past fellow rising star Holger Rune in straight sets on Wednesday.

However, the initial part of the contest was by no means one-way traffic. The opening set was on a knife edge, with Alcraz saving the solitary breakpoint in the opening game. In the seemingly inevitable tiebreaker, it was anyone's set at 3-3.

But the young Spaniard gained the upper hand to take the opening set, cueing a massive roar. The moment settled Alcaraz, as he went on to cruise through the remaining sets without so much as defending a breakpoint.

After the match, he confirmed as much¦

"It was nerves, tension, it was everything," said the 20-year-old, as per wimbledon.com.

"The first set, it was really tough for me. A lot of nerves. I couldn't control it at all. Was able to win the first set. The key to turn around a little bit my emotions.

"It helped me a lot that huge scream after the first set to put out all the nerves and start to enjoy the moment, to enjoy the match. Smiling for me, as I said a few times, is the key of everything."

The mercurial Daniil Medvedev awaits Alcaraz in the final four on Friday. The pair last met on the Wimbledon grass in the 2021 edition, where the Russian swept aside a teenage Alcaraz in straight sets in the second round. Alcaraz exacted revenge in the final of the Indian Wells Masters this year, tyring their head-to-head up at 1-1.

"Daniil's playing great here on grass," admitted Alcaraz.

"He has a great, great year as well. I lost the first match we played here on grass. So I have to learn from it. He's really a complete player. I think Rublev said a few times, he's an octopus. He catches every ball. It is amazing. He's an amazing athlete. He does almost everything well.

"But I'm going to enjoy the semi-final. I think I'm playing great, a lot of confidence right now. So it's going to be a really good match, I think. I'm going to enjoy it."