CARLOS ALCARAZ was astonishingly booed at Wimbledon after booking his place in the final.
The Spanish superstar needed four sets to come from behind and beat Daniil Medvedev on Centre Court.
There was drama before the first point as BBC presenter Clare Balding hit on the head by a stray tennis ball.
Medvedev then escaped a disqualification as he was penalised for his comments to the chair umpire after being broken when serving for the first set.
The Russian did claim the opener on a tie-break but Alcaraz came through, winning 6-7 6-3 6-4 6-4 to book his place in back-to-back Wimbledon finals.
He won the hearts of the nation by beating Novak Djokovic in a five-set thriller a year ago.
However, Alcaraz risked undoing all his hard work with a brilliant comment during his post-match on-court interview today.
He said: “I feel like I am not new anymore.
“I know how I am going to feel before the final, I have been in this position before – I will try to do the things that I didn’t do last year and try to be better.
“I will also try the things that went well obviously.
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“It will be a good day for Spanish people as well!”
Alcaraz was of course referencing the fact that his country, Spain, are in the Euro 2024 final on Sunday evening.
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However, because they are playing England, the Wimbledon crowd jokingly booed and jeered his answer as laughter broke out around the 15,000-seater stadium.
And a beaming Alcaraz quickly backtracked, adding: “I didn’t say Spain was going to win. I’m just saying it is going to be a really fun day!”
He then put his hands on his head before hilariously pleading for forgiveness in a wonderful moment on Centre Court – a far cry from Djokovic’s extraordinary “goooood night” rant on Monday.
The Spaniard needed nearly five hours to beat Djokovic last year as the final finished just before 7pm – a repeat on Sunday would mean he cuts it fine to do his cool down, get any treatment and speak to the media before kick-off in Berlin.
And a long men’s final would almost certainly lead to a nightmare scheduling clash for Centre Court ticket holders – because the mixed doubles final will go on afterwards and could therefore overlap with the Three Lions.
PRIZE MONEY for the 2024 Wimbledon Championships is a new record – and puts the grass-court Slam at the top of the tree.
The All England Club will dish out £50million across all the events – an increase of £5.3m and 11.9 per cent on last year, where singles champions Carlos Alcaraz and Marketa Vondrousova picked up £2.35m each.
However, the king and queen of grass this July will collect an extra £350,000 – taking the winner’s earnings to £2.7m.
Here is the breakdown for the 2024 Wimbledon singles prize money:
Alcaraz has proven to be a wizard with the tennis racquet in his short but successful career so far – winning all three of his Grand Slam finals so far and becoming the youngest men’s world No1 aged 19.
However, he admitted he is struggling to translate his skills from the tennis court to the golf course.
Alcaraz went for a round in South-West London on the eve of Wimbledon – but confessed he is struggling to control the golf ball as much as he would like.
Alcaraz added: “I’m so so bad compared to my tennis. I love playing golf.
“I’m not so good, I’m just finding balls every time, I can’t hit it straight but it helps me a lot to turn off my mind, to not think about tennis and relax a little bit.
“There is a huge percentage I will play golf tomorrow just to calm myself [before the final].
“I love to play but I’m not so good.”
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