(Tennis news) The world’s top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz defeated an exhausted Alexander Zverev on Wednesday with scores of 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 to advance to the U.S. Open semifinals, where he will face Daniil Medvedev in a matchup between the previous two Flushing Meadows winners.

After playing the tournament’s longest match on Monday against Jannik Sinner, an almost five-hour, five-set marathon in testing circumstances, there were concerns about Zverev’s readiness to take on the spirited Alcaraz.

Zverev, a semifinalist at the 2020 U.S. Open, came prepared to battle, but his energy quickly ran out. The 12th seed was unable to keep up as Alcaraz pushed on the pedal to pull away for an easy victory.

Throughout the entire match, Alcaraz only had four breakpoint opportunities, but he made them all count.

“He (Zverev) was struggling a lot, he was working really hard to come back at his best and finally we all see him showing his best tennis,” said Alcaraz.

“We enjoy his game so we are really happy to have him back.”

On yet another humid, hot day with temperatures in the mid-90s Fahrenheit (32 Celsius), Medvedev advanced to the round of 16 by defeating eighth seed Andrey Rublev 6-4, 6-3, 6-4, but he was dissatisfied with the challenging playing conditions.

By the time Carlos and Zverev took the Arthur Ashe court for the late match, the terrible circumstances had lost much of their impact.

Through the first set’s opening stretch, Zverev was able to keep up with Alcaraz because to his powerful serve finding the target.

Carlos took advantage of the one break opportunity he had in the first game to go up 5-3 and promptly held service to take control.

Alcaraz broke again early in the second set, exciting the audience with some highlight reel shots and twirling his racquet like a baton as Zverev’s resistance began to crumble.

Carlos had a large grin on his face and Zverev requested a medical timeout as a result of another break to extend his lead to 5-2 and a hold of serve.

He came back for the third set with his groyne severely strapped, and he fought valiantly until Alcaraz made another late break before serving out the victory.

Also read: Carlos Alcaraz set to play Alexander Zverev at US Open 23