French Open 2023: Carlos Alcaraz hails display against Stefanos Tsitsipas as ‘one of the best matches in my career’

An extremely confident Carlos Alcaraz will begin preparations for the French Open semi-final against Novak Djokovic after playing “one of the best matches” of his career, according to the Spanish sensation.

Alcaraz produced a stunning performance to beat Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-2 6-1 7-6(5) and set up a mouth-watering clash with Djokovic on Friday, with a place in the final of Roland-Garros at stake.

The 20-year-old is the world No. 1 and top seed in France as he seeks his second Grand Slam title and first on the famous red dirt in Paris.

And his display on Tuesday had all the hallmarks of a champion. At times it felt like an exhibition match as the top seed brushed aside the fifth seed.

In an exclusive interview with Eurosport’s Alex Corretja, Alcaraz said: “It was a great match. Stefanos was a little bit worse than he should have been, but that doesn’t mean I was average, I just played one of the best matches of my career.

“I was hitting the ball very well, feeling very good. I kept my concentration during the whole match, although there was a little down at the end. But it was one of the best matches of my life.

“I was with a very high level of confidence, a very good level of clean hitting and also physically I was very good, positioning myself very well to hit the ball, which is very important here.

“I noticed that I could play faster, with more spin, slower, drop shots, go up to the net. I felt I could do a lot with the ball.

“I’m honestly not going to stop thinking about that match. In the end I’m a very competitive guy who wants to play tomorrow if I can. I’m really looking forward to this match and I’m not going to stop thinking about it for a second.

“But it is true that we are going to enjoy the Roland Garros semi-finals. We have two days to train, to prepare, both mentally and physically and we’ll see. But until the day before we’re going to try to enjoy these semi-finals a lot.”

“I think sometimes when you see these great players in the early rounds of Grand Slams, yes there can be a big gulf in the level, the quality, the ability of players,” Henman, a former Roland-Garros semi-finalist, began.

“But Tsitsipas is five in the world, he’s won Masters 1000s, we’re talking about him [potentially] being a Grand Slam champion.

“And for those first two and a half sets it was borderline embarrassing how average Alcaraz was making Tsitsipas look.

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