Carlos Alcaraz: How Spain's marathon man is redefining the parameters of tennis

A US Open that began with Serena Williams’s farewell tour could end with a coming-of-age party for tennis’s brightest young star.

By overcoming Frances Tiafoe in five sets on Friday, 19-year-old Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz has set up a compelling script on Sunday night, when he faces Casper Ruud, the understated Norwegian, in a final that will decide who becomes world No 1.

It is the neatest of conclusions and a wonderful backdrop for that tipping point we have been talking about for five years or more: the long-awaited “changing of the guard”.

Alcaraz’s progress has been bewildering in so many ways. Not least because he has come through three successive five-setters, against Marin Cilic, Jannik Sinner and now Tiafoe.

His cumulative time on court already stands at 20 hr 19 min, which means that, if he were to win the final, he would almost certainly set a grand-slam record for the hardest-earned major title. Again, Nadal is the man to beat here, having battled away for 22hr 28min at January’s Australian Open.

But Alcaraz’s apparently limitless endurance is only the beginning. Had he chosen virtually any other sport, he would surely have succeeded just as brilliantly, given that he also has a robust mental game and what must surely be the most explosive, lickety-split movement seen in tennis. After Friday’s semi-final, Tiafoe – who has played all the so-called “Big Three” – said: “I never played a guy who moves as well as him.”

Alcaraz redefines the logic of the game by apparently teleporting across the court.

At one stage on Friday, he played one of his patented forehand drop shots to bring Tiafoe into the net, but the pair exchanged six successive dinks of ever-increasing genius.

At the conclusion of one of the most inventive rallies you will ever see, Alcaraz sprinted back like the Looney Tunes Road Runner and rifled a forehand pass down the line to draw the biggest roar of the fortnight – and this against the local boy.