Staff Reporter.
(ESPN) – Second-ranked Carlos Alcaraz kept up his relentless run at the US Open, cruising past 20th-seeded Jiri Lehecka 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday to reach the semifinals at Flushing Meadows.
The 22-year-old Spaniard is the only player on the men’s side that has not yet dropped a set. He’s the youngest man to reach the final four at the US Open without surrendering a set since 21-year-old Jim Courier in 1991.
Alcaraz will be making his ninth major semifinal appearance, joining Rafael Nadal (10), Boris Becker (10), Mats Wilander (9) and Bjorn Borg (9) as the only men in the Open era to reach that many Grand Slam semis before their 23rd birthday.
Through five rounds, Alcaraz has dropped serve only once in 69 service games. That’s the fewest times broken by any male US Open semifinalist since Nadal, who didn’t drop serve once en route to the 2013 semis.
Alcaraz, a five-time Grand Slam champion who won the 2022 US Open title, has won 35 of his last 36 matches on tour going back to the start of the Rome tournament.
Lehecka was bidding to become the first Czech man to make a major semifinal since Tomas Berdych in 2017. He is guaranteed to make his debut in the ATP’s Top 20 when the new rankings release Monday.