Carlos Alcaraz has help at Wimbledon. In a very individual sport, he has other people on hand to dig him out of a hole if he needs them. Very good people. The Spain football team, to be precise.

In regular contact with Alvaro Morata, he is cheering his boys on in Germany at the Euros and, in return, Morata and his team-mates are doing the same for Carlitos.

“I talk with Alvaro,” Alcaraz said. “I wish them the best of luck. When I finished (my match), he send me some photos that he was watching the match before their match.

“It was kind of lucky because he told me, OK, I'm going to talk to you because every time that we spoke, we won. Is kind of lucky.”

Spain are already through to the final in Berlin; Alcaraz has Daniil Medvedev standing between him and the Wimbledon final. There may be more phone calls in the coming hours.

To boil the match down to bald numbers: they have played six times, Alcaraz has won four. He has also beaten Medvedev indoors and outdoors, on hard courts and on grass, including in the semi-finals here last year.

So far, so one-sided, then. Except that Medvedev is a very bright man; he learns fast. It may take him time to put that new knowledge into practice, but he knows what he has to do. And he is learning to win the big matches against the big players on grass.

His win over Jannik Sinner on Tuesday served two purposes. It put him through to the semi-finals but it also showed Sinner, who had won their previous five encounters, that he was not going to go away.

Medvedev is 27; the new superstars of the game are much younger. Medvedev was determined to prove that he is not going to step aside and let the young lads take over the world.

“For me, it was important to just show I'm always going to be there,” he said, “I'm always going to fight, I'm always going to try to make your life difficult. Maybe you're going to win more; maybe I'm going to win more. I don't know, but I'm going to fight.

“Even if Jannik won, the goal was to show him that every time I'm going to be there to fight and to win. I managed to do it. Doesn't mean that next time is going to be the same. That's a little bit the attitude.

“That's the same with Carlos last year in US Open. That's going to be same with Carlos in a couple of days.”

So, Medvedev is in fighting mood and he is playing better than ever on the grass.

Alcaraz, on the other hand, is scrapping his way through the rounds. He knows he is not playing at his absolute best but he realises that he just has to play a little better than his opponent to get what he wants.

“We try just to find solutions,” the champion said simply. “For me, obviously, it is going to be really difficult to play my best tennis every match. I know that there are going to be some matches that I'm not going to find my best tennis even though I have to try to win it.

“I think that what the Big Three did through their careers: they are not going to play their best tennis. Even like that, they are going to find their good tennis just to win those matches. That's what I'm thinking.

“When I'm not playing my best tennis, I'm going to try to find solutions just to be a bit better, just to beat the opponent. Sometimes going to be difficult to do it but I played enough level just to win those matches.”

There is little point in a civilian trying to deconstruct every aspect of a match that has not happened yet. Best listen to the experts, the two men who will try to outwit and outhit each other for a place in the final.

Their assessment of the challenge ahead is straightforward: Alcaraz can attack from any quarter of the court and Medvedev can defend any ball sent towards him.

Alcaraz on Medvedev: “The most difficult thing about facing Daniil, or the most special thing about him, is he can reach every ball. Well, he is like a wall. Every ball bounce back.

“I feel like I can hit an unbelievable shot, the ball is going to bounce back. Is difficult to play thinking about that.”

And Medvedev on Alcaraz: “You know whatever shot you hit, he can hit a winner from there. So you try to make his life difficult. You try to hit the shot as good as you can. Maybe he goes for it and he cannot make it.

“But that's pretty special because there are not many players like this. Carlos can do whatever from any position and that's not easy to play against.”

It promises to be a cracker of a match. And somewhere in Berlin, Alvaro Morata and his mates will be watching, ready to make that lucky phone call should Alcaraz win and reach the final.