PARIS: Carlos Alcaraz stormed into the Olympic Games final on Friday as rival Novak Djokovic faced a desperate fitness battle to salvage his latest and probably final chance to end his gold medal jinx.
French Open and Wimbledon champion Alcaraz became the youngest man to reach the men's final since tennis returned to the Games in 1988 when he thrashed Felix Auger-Aliassime.
The 21-year-old swept to a 6-1, 6-1 victory in just 75 minutes and will meet Djokovic in Sunday's final if the top-seeded Serb overcomes a knee injury as well as Italy's Lorenzo Musetti in the second semi-final.
"It has been an objective since the start of the year to try and win the gold medal and now we have one match left to try and get it done," said Alcaraz.
"I want to have fun in the final and do the business."
Spanish star Alcaraz – playing on the same Roland Garros court where he won a maiden French Open in June – broke the 19th-ranked Auger-Aliassime three times in the first set, racing away with six consecutive games.
Alcaraz broke again in the fourth and sixth games of the second set on his way to claiming a fourth successive win over the Canadian, having lost the first three of the pair's series.
"The final is very important for me and the Spanish people but I try not to think about how important it is and will focus on the match," said Alcaraz.
He is the fourth Spanish man to reach the Olympic men's final after Jordi Arrese at Barcelona in 1992, Sergi Bruguera in Atlanta four years later and Rafael Nadal who won gold at Beijing in 2008.
Djokovic admitted after his quarter-final win over Stefanos Tsitsipas on Thursday that he was "concerned" over the state of his right knee after aggravating an injury which required surgery in June.
The top seed is desperate to secure an Olympic gold medal to add to his 24 Grand Slam titles but at 37, the clock is ticking and he will be 41 when the next Olympics comes around.
His best performance was at Beijing in 2008 where he claimed a bronze medal. He has made three semi-finals since, losing all of them.
Djokovic takes on Musetti, the first Italian to reach the singles semi-finals of an Olympic Games.
The 22-year-old was defeated by Djokovic in the Wimbledon semi-finals last month but has breezed through the draw in Paris, winning all four matches in straight sets.
World number 16 Musetti made the semi-finals by defeating defending champion Alexander Zverev.
Despite boasting a 6-1 head-to-head record over the Italian, Djokovic has endured two titanic battles with his rival on the Roland Garros courts.
At the 2021 French Open, Musetti swept to a two-sets lead before a back injury forced him to quit their last-16 clash in the final set.
In June this year, Djokovic needed another five sets to prevail in a third round clash that finished after 3:00 am.
World number one Iga Swiatek – whose defeat in the semi-finals to Zheng Qinwen on Thursday ended a 25-match win streak at Roland Garros – takes on Anna Karolina Schmiedlova in the women's bronze medal match.
The first gold medal of the Olympics tennis event will be decided in mixed doubles when the Czech pair of Katerina Siniakova and boyfriend Tomas Machac face Wang Xinyu and Zhang Zhizhen.
Siniakova won women's doubles gold with Barbora Krejcikova at Tokyo three years ago.
Wang and Zhang are looking to win only China's second tennis gold after Li Ting and Sun Tiantian triumphed in women's doubles at Athens in 2004. - AFP