Olympic tennis 2024: Men’s singles semifinals set after major upsets in quarterfinals
Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz remain, but after a pair of upsets in the quarterfinals, two surprise players have a shot at gold in Paris as well.
The men’s semifinals are set for the men’s singles bracket of tennis at the 2024 Paris Olympics. After a pair of huge upsets in the quarterfinals, the final four now includes top seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia, No. 11 Lorenzo Musetti of Italy, No. 13 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada, and No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz of Spain.
Musetti and Auger-Aliassime are both here after major upsets over No. 3 Alexander Zverev and No. 6 Casper Ruud, respectively. The former fell to the Italian in straight sets on Thursday at Roland Garros, the home of the French Open in Paris, 7-5, 7-5. The latter pushed Auger-Aliassime to three sets, but ultimately fell to the 23-year-old Canadian, 6-4, 6-7(8), 6-3.
Auger-Aliassime was already the first Canadian player to make it to the quarterfinals of the singles bracket at the Olympics, and now he’s through to the semifinals as well. He nearly took down Ruud in straight sets, but he couldn’t convert on match point attempts in the second set. He’ll go on to face Alcaraz in the semifinals.
Alcaraz is coming off a dominant win over the last remaining American in the singles bracket, ninth seed Tommy Paul. Alcaraz, the favorite going into this tournament, handled Paul in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6(7). He’ll be extremely tough to beat for Auger-Aliassime, though the two have split six career meetings, with Alcaraz taking their only previous outing on clay.
Musetti, 22, defeated the defending 2020 Olympics champion in Zverev, who was hoping to become just the second man in history to win back-to-back Olympic singles gold medals. Musetti managed to break Zverev’s very first service game, and he never let off the pressure en route to his victory.
He’ll advance to face Djokovic, who is still searching for his first ever Olympic gold medal. Djokovic has more Grand Slam singles titles than anybody else with 24, and has won onf the clay of Roland Garros three times, most recently in 2023. Injuries have plagued his play of late, and he hasn’t taken any of the Grand Slams in 2024, the first time since 2017 that has happened.
Three of these remaining four will wind up with a singles medal in Paris, with the two losers of these semifinal matches facing off in a bronze medal matchup. Many picked a Djokovic vs. Alcaraz final going into this tournament, and that’s certainly how things could end up, but both players have to be on upset watch after their opponents toppled the likes of Zverev and Ruud.
The men’s singles semifinals are set for Friday, Aug. 2. They’ll be viewable live on Peacock and NBCOlympics.com, with the first of the two matchups being the showdown between Alcaraz and Auger-Aliassime in the morning. They’re set to play on Court Philippe-Chatrier bright and early, currently set for about 7:30 a.m. ET. After that, Djokovic and Musetti will face off on the same court in the afternoon, beginning at 1 p.m.
2024 Paris Olympic tennis men’s singles semifinals
No. 13 Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz (6-7:30 a.m. ET approx.)
No. 1 Novak Djokovic vs. No. 11 Lorenzo Musetti (1 p.m. ET approx.)