Carlos Alcaraz continued his dominant run at the 2024 Paris Olympics, booking the final by beating Felix Auger-Aliassime and ensuring himself a medal.
The 21-year-old Spaniard will play in the 2024 Paris Olympics final, which means that, at worst, he will win a silver medal. As with anyone, he is solely looking at the gold medal, and with the way he has been playing, there is a significant chance that he will win it.
After a tremendous few weeks, which saw him win his maiden Roland Garros and his second Wimbledon Championships title, Alcaraz will have a chance to finish the summer with another incredible achievement.
To reach the final, the Spaniard had to overcome Auger-Aliassime, who made a stunning effort out of nowhere to find himself in the medal rounds. The Canadian did well in making the final, as he bested some notable players like Daniil Medvedev and Casper Ruud, a two-time finalist in Paris.
However, Alcaraz proved too much for him, as the World No. 3 was incredibly dominant. The Canadian has generally struggled against the Spaniard in previous matches, including one earlier this year at Indian Wells.
The bigger issue that the matchup for the Canadian, was the fact that Alcaraz has been playing on an incredibly high level in recent weeks, as he has been the best player in the world for the past two months, and it's not even close.
The level he has been bringing to the courts in recent weeks has been head and shoulders above everyone else. This match's first game was complicated for Auger-Alissime, who barely won it after having to endure a deuce.
Still, he got broken in the next service game, as Alcaraz was just applying too much pressure. Auger-Aliassime clearly saw the Spaniard's previous matches, so he opted to take an aggressive approach to try and not get overrun.
It didn't work out, as he simply lacks hitting consistency. He struggled to hit any winners and accumulated too many unforced errors, so he fell behind 1-4 early in the opening set of the match.
On the other hand, the second seed kept applying heavy pressure and won the opening set 6-1, as Auger-Aliassime simply did not have a solution for the Spaniard.
The start of the second set appeared to be good for the Canadian, as he appeared to keep himself in the match. He remained aggressive but served a bit better, leading 40-15 in his second service game of the second set.
However, ten minutes later from that moment, the scoreboard showed 4-1 for Alcaraz, who stole that game, showing his brutal dominance in the match. Losing that game was a huge blow to the Canadian, who never seemed anywhere close to turning around the match after that.
He didn't look close to turning it around even earlier, as Alcaraz cruised easily to the finish line, securing the silver medal at worst but, more importantly, a chance to contest for the gold medal, winning 6-1, 6-1.
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