‘Age is just a number’ – Auger-Aliassime relishing clash with fellow youngster Alcaraz

Felix Auger-Aliassime and Carlos Alcaraz both have a shot at a maiden Grand Slam semi-final, with the Spaniard in particular looking to continue forging his historic path. 

The young Canadian Auger-Aliassime overcame home favourite Frances Tiafoe in four sets to book his place in a second consecutive Slam quarter-final.

The even younger Alcaraz backed up his incredible victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas in the third round by defeating qualifier Peter Gojowczyk over five sets to reach a maiden Slam quarter-final.

The match-up will be a blockbuster of youthful talent, and Auger-Aliassime acknowledged as much.

“[Alcaraz] is a great player,” the world number 15 said in his on-court interview after defeating Tiafoe.

“You know, at some point, age is just a number. He already feels like a player that’s established and he’s playing some amazing tennis.”

With Auger-Aliassime just 21 years old and Alcaraz still only 18, the two men have a combined age younger than Roger Federer, who recently turned 40.

On his own, Alcaraz is the youngest man since Michael Chang at the 1990 French Open to reach the singles quarter-finals of a Slam.

Auger-Aliassime is playing his 10th Slam main draw in New York, while Alcaraz is playing just his fourth, being every Slam in 2021.

His previous best result came at Roland Garros, reaching the third round before losing out to Jan-Lennard Struff.

“So, I think we’ll see a lot of him, a lot of us, a lot of Frances (Tiafoe) in the future, and I hope we’ll play a good match on Tuesday,” Auger-Aliassime finished.

The victor would likely face second seed and 2019 US Open finalist Daniil Medvedev for a place in the final.

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