Carlos Alcaraz came through a brutal five-hour, 27-minute test of endurance in the Australian Open semifinal against Alexander Zverev. But as the match dragged on, the Spaniard began to show clear signs of physical discomfort, and eventually called for medical assistance.

Earlier in the match, Alcaraz had told his team that he had thrown up and might need medication, raising immediate concerns about his condition. By the time the third set rolled around, those concerns were hard to miss.

This caught the attention of many, including the commentators, who were speculating that the Spaniard was thinking of retiring from the match.

“Maybe Alcaraz was thinking of retiring, Chris,” a commentator said, and they received a reply: “I thought the same thing, Patrick. Zverev was a bit confused there. Alcaraz gave Zverev a bit of an apology.” The 22-year-old probably rethought his retirement ideas, but this brief exchange showcased how grueling the match was.

The conditions at the Australian Open weren’t the hottest, but they were enough to test these athletes to their very limit. Alcaraz came to the semifinal with a scorching 85.64°F temperature, and when it looked like he would cruise to a straight sets victory, he suffered from severe cramping in his upper right leg and groin late in the third.

Well, those cramps completely changed the rhythm of the match, turning it towards his German opponent as Zverev took the third and fourth sets against a seemingly flagging Alcaraz.

When Carlos Alcaraz was allowed a medical timeout, it left Zverev furious. The German yelled at chair umpire Marijana Veljovic, stating, “It’s unbelievable that he can get treated for cramps. This is bulls***.”

However, when the Spaniard was asked about this exact scene that unfolded on the court during the press conference, he replied, stating, “No, no, no. I saw the video, and I saw the people talking about it, but there wasn’t a single second that I thought about retiring. It was about there are some times that I just let him go through before. There are some moments that he let me go first. That video was who was going to go through first. That was all.”

Following this critical moment on the court, the 22-year-old rose up and fought bravely, and also revealed his mentality behind this during the post-match on-court interview.

Carlos Alcaraz isn’t someone who gives up that easily

Carlos Alcaraz is aiming for that seventh Grand Slam and a career Grand Slam at the Australian Open, and following the match against Alexander Zverev, he spoke about the resilience that secured him that grueling victory in tough conditions.

“Believing, believing all the time,” Alcaraz said in his on-court interview. “I think I always say that you have to believe in yourself no matter what, no matter what you’re struggling, you’ve been through, no matter anything, you still gotta believe in yourself all the time.”

“I was struggling in the middle of the third set, you know, physically it was one of the most demanding, you know, matches that I have ever played in my short career, I would say.”

He added, “But I’ve been in these kind of situations, I’ve been in these kind of matches before, so I knew what I had to do, I had to put my heart, you know, into the match. I think I did it, I fought until the last ball, I knew that I was going to have my chances. I was passionate, you know, in the fifth set, but, you know, just extremely proud about myself, the way that I fought and the way that I came back, you know, in the fifth set.”

While it wasn’t quite as heroic as a comeback as last year’s French Open final, it comes pretty close, going down amongst Alcaraz’s greatest matches. It also means that Alcaraz is now at an astonishing 15-1 in five set matches

It was a pure display of that “never-say-die” attitude, which ultimately paid off for the Spaniard. And in a matter of minutes as of writing this article, it will be confirmed who Alcaraz faces in the final: Jannik Sinner or Novak Djokovic.