Alcaraz – Djokovic, live | The Murcian and the Serbian battle it out in the Olympic final for the gold medal

From the box, Virginia tells Carlitos to change his expression. “Like that, like that!” the mother draws with her hands, asking her son to smile and enjoy himself because that way, as we know, everything goes much better. So the Murcian, an obedient boy, puts aside the anxiety, the tension and that endless soliloquy — “Come on, come on! Cheer up, man!” — and re-energizes himself to get out of the hole he has gotten himself into in the second set. Once the request is met and the turn is made — how right mothers always are — everything changes and the anguish becomes the ideal breeding ground for the Spaniard to reverse the dynamic and finally triumph, not without suffering: 6-3 and 7-6 (7), in 2h 01m. He is there then, one step away from the medals and, why not, two away from becoming the youngest Olympic champion. In his debut at the Games, the player from El Palmar is already in the semi-finals, where he will face the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime (6-4, 6-7(8) and 6-3 against Casper Ruud) on Friday (13.30, Eurosport). Before that, he worked tirelessly and worked up a generous sweat on the centre court.