The Arthur Ashe Stadium will witness tennis history on Friday as two blockbuster semifinals determine who will compete for the final Grand Slam title of 2025. In a collision of generations, seventh seed Novak Djokovic meets second seed Carlos Alcaraz in what promises to be the most anticipated match of the tournament before the big final, while defending champion and world No. 1 Jannik Sinner faces this tournament's giant-killer Felix Auger Aliassime. With Djokovic pursuing his record-extending 25th Grand Slam title and Alcaraz seeking to reclaim the world No. 1 ranking, the stakes couldn't be higher as the ATP 1000 event reaches its climactic stages at Flushing Meadows.
Alcaraz vs Djokovic
The 38-year-old Serbian maestro continues to stay in the pack of the players defining the pinnacle of this sport, reaching his record-equalling 14th US Open semifinal after a commanding four-set victory over American fourth seed Taylor Fritz. Djokovic dropped just one set against Fritz, prevailing 6-3, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 while maintaining his perfect 11-0 record against the American and improving to 16-0 against US opponents in New York. It was an impressive display of resistance showed by Djokovic on Wednesday's night. Everyone was aware of the crushing H2H record between him and Fritz, including both the players, but the last standing American in the field gave his all to reverse the course of encounters against the Grand Slam multichampion. Fritz has put the immense pressure on Djokovic, producing huge amount of 46 pressure points, while his multiple conqueror managed to set just 29 pressure points on the home favorite's serve. Djokovic was almost unbearable in the clutch moments, winning 33 out of 46 pressure points faced, including 11 out of 13 breakpoints saved. He denied the eventual Fritz's comeback from 0-2 down in sets scoreline and secured the victory in the most awaited quarterfinal clash in this edition, showing the grand champion is not done yet. Fritz's performance was really good on that day with 46 winners in compare to 42 unforced errors. Djokovic did not look like he brought his A game (33 winners to 40 unforced errors), but it was far enough to extend the series of consequent victories over the last year's US Open runner-up.
The 22-year-old Spaniard has been nothing short of spectacular in his march to the semifinals, yet to drop a single set through five matches. Alcaraz demolished Czech Jiri Lehecka 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 in the quarterfinals, firing 28 winners while never facing a break point. The three-time Grand Slam champion has held serve in 68 of 69 service games this fortnight, with 34 consecutive holds dating back to the third round. His serving statistics are remarkable - winning 84% of first-serve points and 68% on second serves throughout the tournament. Since the Rome Masters in May, Alcaraz has compiled an extraordinary 35-1 record on tour, with his only loss coming to Sinner in the Wimbledon final. The road to semifinals in New York was really formidable for the Spaniard, who did not face the opponent from top 20 in the rankings so far, however he was untouchable in the role of the banker favorite up to this point.
The head-to-head favors Djokovic 5-4, though their rivalry has produced some of the most compelling matches in recent years. Djokovic holds a perfect 3-0 record against Alcaraz on hard courts, including their most recent encounter at the Australian Open quarterfinals in January, where the Serbian prevailed 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 despite battling an upper leg injury. Alcaraz has beaten Djokovic in both their Wimbledon finals (2023 and 2024), but the Spaniard has never defeated him on the surface where Djokovic has claimed 14 of his 24 Grand Slam titles. Both got used to compete for the highest stake on all surfaces, as Djokovic snatched his dreamed Olympic gold medal in the final match against Alcaraz in Paris last year.
The stats from the ongoing tournament havily favorizes Alcaraz on all the dimensions apart the breakpoints conversion rate. Their performance in whole the season on hard courts is more simillar, with the return performance being the superior area for the Spaniard. DJokovic's tiebreaks performance is a liability, as has won just 38.5% of decisive games on hard courts in 2025 and just 1 out of 3 played against lower ranked opponents in earlier rounds in New York. The Serbian was under the spotlights of fitness concerns with a few medical timeouts received during the tournament, however approaching the semifinal in such a form looks like the issues got more than less solved during the progress of the event.
Sinner vs Auger-Aliassime
The defending champion produced another clinical performance in the quarterfinals, dismantling compatriot Lorenzo Musetti 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 in the first all-Italian men's Grand Slam quarterfinal. Sinner needed just two hours to dispatch the 10th seed. This match was supposed to be a one-way traffic, knowing that hard courts is far from being favorite surface of the world number 10, combining with the superior class of his favorized fellowcountry. However, despite the expected straight-sets victory for Sinner, the pre-match underdog was not shy to put some good performance depsite the adverse scoreline. They both produced the simillar amount of pressure points (Sinner's 18 to Musetti's 16) and Musetti has had some serious couple of chances - 7 breakpoints, while Sinner created just 6. The pure quality was displayed in the performance during clutch moments, as Sinner saved all the brekapoints, won 11 out of 16 pressure points on serve and converted 5 out of 6 breakpoints created, which settled the scoreline in such a way. However, Musetti can leave the New York with his head up high. It was his first quarterfinal on hard courts in Grand Slam and the end of miserable streak on that surface this year. The overview of that match was also quite different than the beatdown served by Sinner to Alexander Bublik, who approached the match against the world number one with a streak of 20 wins out of last 22 matches and got literally blew off the court with just 3 games won, not matching Sinner's intense at all. With the victory over Musetti, at 24 years and 18 days, Sinner became the youngest man to record 25 wins at the majors in a single season, surpassing Mats Wilander's 1988 record.
The 25-year-old Canadian has engineered one of the tournament's most impressive runs, reaching his second Grand Slam semifinal and first since the 2021 US Open. Auger-Aliassime survived a grueling four-hour, 10-minute quarterfinal battle against eighth seed Alex de Minaur, prevailing 4-6, 7-6(7), 7-5, 7-6(4) despite committing 50 unforced errors and 11 double faults. It got all compensated by the stunning numbers of 22 aces and 50 winners fired, though. The 25th seed showed remarkable mental fortitude, coming back from 2-5 down in the fourth set, being a single break down His run includes victories over three top-20 players - No. 3 Alexander Zverev, No. 15 Andrey Rublev, and de Minaur - marking the first time he has eliminated multiple ATP top-20 opponents at a single major. Auger-Aliassime has extended his superior form in tiebreaks, adding two crucial ones to the collection of all six tiebreaks played this fortnight, displaying exceptional clutch play in pressure moments.
Both Auger-Aliassime and Sinner have played against each other just twice before this summer, with both matches in 2022 ended up in favor of FAA. However, their most recent meeting tells a different story - Sinner demolished the Canadian 6-0, 6-2 in just 71 minutes at the Cincinnati quarterfinals three weeks ago, his quickest victory of the season outside of retirements. The Italian has evolved significantly since their earlier encounters, now ranked world No. 1 compared to outside the top 10 during their 2022 meetings. Sinner has already surpassed Auger-Alassime's fellowcountry in the round of 16, winning over Denis Shapovalov in the most challenging test so far which brought the only one set dropped by the Italian in this tournament. However, the trouble was even more serious with being down in third set, but Sinner passed this test with cruising onto the victory since then. The stats radars are less than positive for Auger-Aliassime both for the whole season and the fortnight in Flushing Meadows. Sinner is the strong favorite in this of the semifinals match-up which is much less hot than the other, however the pressure related to staying at the top of the rankings and the Canadian's ability to put the upset in this tournament are not writing-off some sensational scenarios for Friday night.
