Carlos Alcaraz defeats Felix Auger-Aliassime for first time in four tries at Indian Wells

Felix Auger-Aliassime had won all three of their previous meetings—he had never even been broken in any of them, holding all 31 of his service games (and saving all 11 break points he faced).

But Carlos Alcaraz got his revenge at Indian Wells on Thursday night, breaking the Canadian three times to win, 6-4, 6-4, and move through to his second straight semifinal in the desert.

After four straight holds to start the match, Alcaraz finally broke through on the Auger-Aliassime serve, converting his sixth break point of the night—and his 17th career break point against the Canadian—with a sensational forehand passing shot for a 3-2 lead.

The two then held from there until Alcaraz had the set in his pocket.

Alcaraz broke again in the very first game of the second set, only to get broken right back—but the Spanish teenager eventually got his third and final break of the match for 5-4 and served it out, ripping one last forehand winner into the corner to seal the victory.

He finished with 26 winners to 16 unforced errors—including more than three times as many winners as errors off his forehand, 16 to 5.

Alcaraz is now through to the fourth Masters 1000 semifinal of his career. He reached his first one at Indian Wells last year, falling to Rafael Nadal, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, in a three-hour-plus epic. The last two times he made it to the final four at a Masters 1000 event he went on to win the title, at Miami and Madrid last year.