Carlos Alcaraz rolls into US Open semifinals with highlight-filled victory over Jiri Lehecka

Peter Sblendorio, New York Daily News on Sep 2, 2025

Published in Tennis

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NEW YORK — Carlos Alcaraz placed a finger behind his ear and gazed upward at an astonished Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd.

The Spanish superstar had just capped a 21-shot rally against Jiri Lehecka with an incredible backhand winner, making a full-extension stretch to tap the ball over the net and well out of his opponent’s reach.

It was that kind of afternoon for Alcaraz.

Alcaraz delivered highlight after highlight in Tuesday afternoon’s tidy 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 victory, sending him back to the US Open semifinals for the first time since 2023.

His semifinal match is scheduled for Friday, when he’s slated to face the winner of Taylor Fritz and Novak Djokovic’s quarterfinal bout.

“I’m playing great and I’m feeling really comfortable, as I’ve said many times in this tournament,” said Alcaraz, the world’s No. 2 player. “I think today, I just played, really, an almost perfect match.”

Through five matches in this year’s tournament at Flushing Meadows, Alcaraz is yet to drop a set.

He needed only an hour and 56 minutes to dispose of the Czech Lehecka, the world’s 21st-ranked player, who repeatedly engaged Alcaraz in long rallies but ultimately proved to be no match.

Alcaraz won every game in which he served, won four of nine break points, delivered 28 winners to Lehecka’s 17, and committed 17 unforced errors to Lehecka’s 23.

The 22-year-old Alcaraz did not lose a single point in the final three games in which he served.

“Today, I kind of met the Grand Slam version of Carlos,” Lehecka said.

“If you want to beat him, you need to win at least a few of the big points, and he won all of them. Even when I played a really good rally, even when I tried to put him under pressure, go to the net, change the rhythm, do something, he was there. He had an answer for everything I tried.”

And in many instances, Alcaraz did it in jaw-dropping fashion.

In the 10th game of the first set, Alcaraz ranged from one edge of the court to the other and drilled a winner down the line, beyond the reach of an out-of-position Lehecka. Alcaraz then wagged his finger in a celebration akin to Dikembe Mutombo’s.

Alcaraz’s dazzler to end the 21-shot rally helped him go up 4-2 in the second set, kicking off a run in which he won three consecutive games.

And when he broke Lehecka’s serve for the final time to go up 5-4 in the third set, Alcaraz unleashed a guttural scream, sensing victory was imminent.

“I’m trying,” Alcaraz said. “Sometimes, I lose a lot of points because I’m trying the good shots or the impossible ones. Some of them happened. When it gets in, you feel super great.”

Alcaraz is now 3-1 against Lehecka, who defeated him in the Doha quarterfinal back in January. Like the Open, Doha is a hard-court tournament, but that event is a best-out-of-three format.

“On the Grand Slam stage, when he knows that he has more sets to find his rhythm, he’s a little bit more free, the way how he plays,” Lehecka said of Alcaraz.

“Even when I played good points, I was just not winning the points where I played good tennis, and that’s not something I was used to seeing in the previous rounds.”

Alcaraz was only 19 when he won the Open in 2022 for his first Grand Slam victory. He returned to the semifinal the following year.

But Alcaraz is on a run at redemption this year after suffering a stunning second-round upset to 74th-ranked Botic van de Zandschulp in straight sets at last year’s Open.

Alcaraz is now two matches away from his second Open championship and his sixth career major title. He remains on a collision course to meet top-ranked Jannik Sinner of Italy in the final.

Sinner and Alcaraz have combined to win each of the last seven Grand Slam tournaments. Those include the 2025 French Open, where Alcaraz defeated Sinner in the final, and Wimbledon, where Sinner beat Alcaraz in the final.

Should they meet again this weekend, it would mark the third consecutive major tournament in which Alcaraz and Sinner faced each other in the final. Sinner is set to play Lorenzo Musetti in the quarterfinals on Wednesday night.

“Just two more steps to do, and let’s see what happens,” Alcaraz said of winning the Open. “I’m just feeling great and hungry to make it.”