Twice defending champion Carlos Alcaraz tamed the towering Taylor Fritz to reach his third straight Wimbledon final, rediscovering his A-game when it mattered most to battle past the American in a 6-4, 5-7, 6-3, 7-6(6) victory on Friday.
Eyeing a sixth Grand Slam title, the Spaniard was eventually too strong for the metronomically consistent Fritz, whose biggest weapons were still not damaging enough to unsettle the second seed under a fiery sun on Centre Court.
Alcaraz's victory set the stage for a tantalising final against either world number one Jannik Sinner or 24-time major winner Novak Djokovic, who will duel it out in the second semi-final also on Friday.
Alcaraz, who last tasted defeat at the Barcelona Open in April, has now won 24 matches in a row, an ominous statistic for whoever he faces on Sunday.
"I'm not thinking about the winning streak or the results at all," the 22-year-old said on court after wrapping up victory when the world number five sent a forehand long to decide a tense fourth-set tiebreak.
"This is my dream -- stepping on these beautiful courts and playing tennis in the most beautiful tournaments in the world. That's all I try to think at every tournament and why I try to bring the joy to the courts."
He certainly entertained a Centre Court crowd who lapped up a contest that pitted two hardened competitors with such contrasting styles against each other.
Fritz, who was bidding to become the first American man to reach the Wimbledon final since Andy Roddick in 2009, was so languid and smooth, emotionally and physically consistent from one point to the next.
Alcaraz, on the other hand, was a fidgeting bundle of energy, exploding into life at key moments, ripping top-spin forehands that drew gasps of admiration.
Fritz broke Alcaraz for the first and only occasion to take the second set as the Spaniard's intensity levels dropped, but the champion quickly regained the upper hand, breaking twice in the third and coming through the tiebreak to clinch victory.
If Fritz's game can be summed up succinctly as big serve, big forehand, then Alcaraz's performance could be reduced to big serve, big forehand and everything else besides.
In the sets he won, his serve was almost untouchable. He won 100% of his first serve points in the first set, when he broke in the opening game and then smoothly saw it out to get himself in front.
In the third set, Fritz gained a single point in total on the Alcaraz serve, as the second seed broke for a 2-1 lead and again to wrap it up and reimpose his dominance on the contest.
While the Fritz forehand produced an impressive 11 winners, Alcaraz's more demonstrative stroke delivered a comparable 10.
But if they were evenly matched from the back of the court, at the net it was a totally different story.
Alcaraz turned back the clock with repeated success on the serve-volley, an old Wimbledon favourite which is sporadically reincarnated on Centre Court.
He won 16 of 20 points with the tactic, which Fritz, despite his huge serve, attempted only twice, while the Spaniard won 31 of 41 net points, more than double his 27-year-old opponent.
Fritz had his moments, pouncing when Alcaraz took his foot off the pedal to level the contest at one set all and spurning two set points in the tiebreak that would have forced the contest into a decider.
Yet Alcaraz was undoubtedly the better player on the day and now stands one match away from joining greats Bjorn Borg, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic as the only men to win three successive Wimbledon crowns in the professional era.
"Right now I don't want to think about Sunday," the Spaniard said. "I just want to enjoy this moment and that I've got to a third final in a row. I will have time to think about Sunday, I'm going to watch the other semi-final as well and let's see."
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