LONDON -- Highlight reels from Carlos Alcaraz's first five matches at Wimbledon are already making the rounds online. But it's not his 104 mph forehands -- or the Roger Federer-esque around-the-post backhand -- that have carried Alcaraz into his first Wimbledon semifinal.
It's that the 2022 US Open champion has learned how to translate his dazzling speed to these courts, and how to deploy those shots on the surface on which he's least comfortable. In only his fourth tournament on grass, the 20-year-old is molding himself into the shape of a Wimbledon contender.