Australian Open 2026: Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz advance to final with epic five-set victory

Alcaraz has pulled off some stunning comebacks at majors – the most quintessential example being when he saved three championship points before defeating Sinner in last year’s French Open final.

But given his physical condition, the victory was equally pleasing.

Alcaraz stood at the back of the court, telling himself “little by little, Charlie, Vamos,” as he tried to find some energy late in the fourth set.

Even before the cramps began, Alcaraz was the braver player. He controlled the match, hit the big shots hard and finished with 78 winners to Zverev’s 56, showing that his “great” tennis career was paying off.

Zverev played at a high level, but was not ruthless enough at critical moments.

Alcaraz could barely make a run at the end of the third set, but Zverev kept making errors on weak serves and rarely tested him at the net.

Zverev twice broke the Spaniard’s serve at 0-30 to force a fifth set. Alcaraz held serve twice under the urging of the audience, and then served hard to drag the fourth set into a tie-break.

However, Zverev took advantage of Alcaraz’s shaky serve in the tiebreak and broke serve again in the first game of the fifth set.

But the German had collapsed in crucial moments before, and his break lead never felt safe.

Encouraged by the crowd, Alcaraz broke to get the match back on serve and then took advantage of Zverev’s nerves with the German trailing 6-5 to try and force the tiebreak to 10 points but had to reckon with another devastating defeat.

“I always say you have to believe in yourself no matter what,” Alcaraz said.

“Without these people, I wouldn’t be here right now. [the crowd]. The way you brought me back into the game every point was crazy. “