It is hard enough to win a Wimbledon title; it is harder again to defend one. But trying to win a third consecutive title while, at the same time, tiptoeing through the potential minefield of international relations is surely asking too much.
Not, apparently, if you are Carlos Alcaraz. He managed that delicate balancing act of beating the local hero, Cameron Norrie, 6-2, 6-3, 6-3 while at the same time keeping the crowd very much on his side.
“I’m just really, really happy,” Alcaraz said. “To be able to play another semi-final at Wimbledon is super special. It is something that I wanted to do at the beginning of the week: just try to go as far as I can and give myself the chance to play a semi-final here is going to be great.
“I’m just really happy with the level that I played today against a really difficult player like Cam. He’s an amazing player; he’s an amazing guy as well. I’m pretty sure that there is nobody who works harder than him and I’m just really happy to see him fighting for great things. Happy to see him playing these kind of matches. And I’m happy to qualify for the semi-final.”
The match-up was not that easy for the crowd, either. Of course, the British supporters wanted the British player to win. They had to cheer for Norrie. But they have taken the world No.2 to their hearts as he has collected the trophy for the past two years. How could they not cheer for Carlitos?
As it turned out, both men helped solve this tricky problem. Norrie fought, as he always does, which gave everyone a selection of passing shots and canny, lefty serves to celebrate. Maybe not as many as he would have liked, but when he landed them, the crowd responded with enthusiasm.
Alcaraz, meanwhile, was playing with such touch, confidence and power that no one could begrudge him wholehearted respect, admiration and affection.
Norrie has one thing in common with Alcaraz: he has been to a Wimbledon semi-final before. Admittedly it was in 2022, the year before the Spaniard first took charge of Centre Court, but he knows what it takes to get to the last four.
With a game designed to drive any opponent to distraction (a loopy, spinny forehand and the flattest of flat backhands) and with the sort of positive, never-say-die attitude that has tormented some of his rivals this past week, Norrie in his pomp is a handful.
He’s an amazing player; he’s an amazing guy as well. I’m pretty sure that there is nobody who works harder than him.
He also has almost unlimited stamina – if he needed to go five sets and five hours, he has the lung power and the legs to do it. He just needed to extend the contest to prove it.
But Alcaraz made it quite clear that that would not happen. This would be a brief encounter.
He set about Norrie with his blunderbuss forehand; he foxed him with delicate drop shots, he punished him with his first serves. And he pocketed the first set in 28 minutes. Britain’s No.3 made more headway in the second set – he started trading blows from the baseline with the champion – but he could not stop Alcaraz from moving into a two set lead.
By this stage, Norrie had engineered five break points and seen all of them whipped away from his racket strings. Alcaraz, by contrast had broken Norrie four times. He had struck 27 clean winners to Norrie’s 12. The list went on and on and few of the numbers were in Norrie’s favour. The attack did not let up in the slightest in the third set.
The problem for the local hero was that whenever he tried to threaten in any way (and he was trying everything he knew), Alcaraz simply moved up a gear and eased away from him. And it seemed that he had so many gears to choose from.
It was all over in one hour and 39 minutes. Alcaraz got a huge round of applause from an appreciative crowd and Norrie left the court to enthusiastic cheers.
A place in the last four against Taylor Fritz had been secured and all international relations had been left intact. It was a good job, well done.