Carlos Alcaraz hits during the quarterfinal round of the U.S. Open tennis championships on Tuesday in New York. (AP photo)

NEW YORK — Before knowing for sure that he would need to get past Jannik Sinner to reach a Grand Slam final for the first time, Felix Auger-Aliassime was asked to assess the U.S. Open’s No. 1 seed and defending champion.

“What to say about Jannik’s game?” said Auger-Aliassime, who is seeded 25th. “He’s been obviously untouchable, at times.”

That’s a pretty apt description for a guy closing in on becoming the first man to win consecutive titles at Flushing Meadows since Roger Federer collected five in a row from 2004 through 2008.

Sinner vs. Auger-Aliassime

In today’s semifinals, Auger-Aliassime might be taking on the toughest task in tennis at the moment, particularly on hard courts: Sinner is on a 26-match Grand Slam unbeaten streak on that surface, which includes titles at the past two Australian Opens in addition to last year’s U.S. Open.

The 24-year-old from Italy also is coming off a Wimbledon championship in July for his fourth career major trophy.

Nothing easy about the other men’s semifinal, either. That one features 24-time Slam champion Novak Djokovic, who is 38, against Carlos Alcaraz, who already owns five such titles at age 22.

Alcaraz vs. Djokovic

“I know he’s hungry,” Alcaraz said about Djokovic, who exited each of the year’s other three majors in the semifinals. “I know his ambition for more.”

Just three weeks ago, Auger-Aliassime went up against Sinner at the Cincinnati Open and it wasn’t exactly a close contest. Sinner won 6-0, 6-2. They hadn’t met since 2022, when Auger-Aliassime won both matchups against a guy who wasn’t yet the Sinner the world knows today.

Auger-Aliassime offered a rundown of ways in which Sinner is a different player now.

“I give him credit. You have to give credit when it’s due. When somebody does the work and they improve and they get to that level, you just have to tip your hat,” said the 25-year-old from Canada, who lost his only previous Grand Slam semifinal at the 2021 U.S. Open.

31 straight with serve

There’s certainly quite a lot Sinner that does well, as he demonstrated by overwhelming his last two opponents. In a performance Sinner described as “very solid,” he dismissed No. 10 Lorenzo Musetti in the quarterfinals 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 in just 2 hours on Wednesday, two nights after an even more lopsided win, 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 against No. 23 Alexander Bublik in 1 hour, 21 minutes in the fourth round.

That’s less than 3 1/2 hours combined over two matches. Auger-Aliassime needed 4 hours, 10 minutes just to get past No. 8 Alex de Minaur in his quarterfinal.

Sinner goes into Friday having claimed his past 31 service games in a row, saving 10 break points in that span.

Against Musetti, he won 42 of the 46 points — 91% — when he got his first serve in.

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Howard Fendrich has been the AP’s tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich. More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis