Alcaraz threatens Djokovic's top ATP rankings

For the second year in a row, Alcaraz reached the semi-finals of the tournament in Indian Wells. If he wins the championship, he will reclaim the world number one position from Novak Djokovic. The Spaniard needs to win two more matches to win the BNP Paribas Open. If they beat Jannik Sinner in the semi-finals, Alcaraz will meet either Daniil Medvedev or Frances Tiafoe in the final.

Before the Auger-Aliassime match in the quarterfinals on March 16, Alcaraz had never won against a Canadian opponent after three encounters. In those three losses, the teen didn't win a catch game. But everything changed at the fourth meeting. Auger-Aliassime wasn't in top form, and Alcaraz said after the game that he played the best tennis he's had since the start of the season.

The number one seed three times won the game and returned for the whole match, to win 6-4, 6-4. On the day Auger-Aliassime only served one ball on the field 56% and made six double errors, Alcaraz had 12 break-points. The number two player in the world scored 26 winners. 16 of those came from a forehand - a hit that caused only five self-defeating errors for Alcaraz.

Alcaraz reached the semi-finals of the Masters 1000 for the fourth time. In the last two times in the fourth round of the strongest players, Alcaraz won both, in Miami and Madrid. Last year at Indian Wells, he lost to Rafael Nadal in three sets, in a match that lasted more than three hours.

Sinner, Alcaraz's semi-final opponent, eliminated host Taylor Fritz 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. In the quarterfinals of the US Open last year, Sinner almost beat Alcaraz. The Italian player had a match-point in the fourth set, but missed. Then, Alcaraz won 6-3, 6-7 (7), 6-7 (0), 7-5, 6-3, in the second longest match in tournament history (5 hours 15 minutes).

The two semi-finals of the US Open men's singles will take place at dawn on March 19, Hanoi time. The day before, Maria Sakkari met Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek met Elena Rybakina in the women's singles semifinal. Rybakina is one of three players to have defeated Swiatek this season, in the fourth round of the Australian Open.