The poster made all tennis fans salivate.
It will not take place.
While everyone dreamed of seeing him face Novak Djokovic or Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals of Roland-Garros, the Spanish prodigy Carlos Alcaraz (19) was stopped, brutally, this Tuesday in the quarter-finals of the tournament by Alexander Zverev (6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (9-7)) and 3h18 of play.
Before the terrible clash of titans between "Djoko" and "Rafa" in the evening, the earth had already shaken at the start of the afternoon.
This duel has kept all its promises.
Even more.
He has reached heights, bordering on perfection.
The sublime.
Both players gave their all, multiplying strikes as powerful as they were precise.
It was no longer tennis but almost a video game.
Especially during this fourth round that each, in turn, will have thought to win.
But after erasing a set point (5-6 in the tie-break), the German, with a supersonic return, won the game on his second match point.
Two weeks after being slapped by the Spaniard in the final of the Madrid Masters (6-3, 6-1), "Sascha" Zverev therefore took his revenge.
He showed that he was not world number 3 and Olympic champion - last summer in Tokyo - for nothing.
For the first time in the tournament, Alcaraz, who remained on 14 successes, found stronger than him.
The German qualifies for the second semi-final in a row at Roland-Garros.
Last year he was stopped by the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas.
This time he will face the winner of the duel between Djokovic and Nadal.