Not even half a crack in Alcaraz‘s game on the way to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. In the fourth round was the most demanding rival he has encountered in the tournament, the American Tommy Paul. AND Carlitos resolved the match in three sets 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 and 7-5 in two hours and 44 minutes. The winner of Bublik-De Miñaur awaits in the quarterfinals.
Carlitos had his best match of the tournament against the highest level racket he has encountered so far. And Tommy Paul had a very notable match, but the solidity and reliability shown by Alcaraz against the American is a wake-up call for everything that lies ahead. The number one showed astonishing consistency in all the critical moments of the match. It didn’t take him long to recover from the “break” with which the match began; knew how to adapt to the “tie-break” interruptus – there was a break of a quarter of an hour due to the fainting of a spectator – with which the first set was resolved; He barely made any mistakes in the second set and that reliability carried over to the third set. And all this against a rival with more substance than has been encountered so far. Tommy Paul’s tennis would have helped him beat almost everyone. He is number 20 in the ATP, he was “top 10” less than a year ago and none of the Murcian’s rivals until now had shown a level like Paul’s.
It didn’t matter because Alcaraz did not make a single reprehensible decision. He made mistakes, few, but they were the result of the American’s good play. When he couldn’t afford to commit them, he didn’t. He was impeccable in critical moments. Nothing to do with the hardships experienced by Sinner or Djokovic. Bublik or De Minaur will arrive in the quarterfinals and they will do so on a day in which temperatures of 43 degrees are expected in Melbourne. Will it be with the roof covered and in a new early morning session? We will see.
Sabalenka is already in the quarterfinals
In the women’s draw, Aryna Sabalenka is the first player of the tournament in the quarterfinals after beating Canadian Victoria Mboko 6-1 and 7-6 (7/1) on Rod Laver Arena. The Belarusian spent one hour and 26 minutes, clearly dominated the first set and got the match back on track thanks to her power on serve and her aggressiveness from the baseline. Mboko, 19, reacted in the second set and took advantage of a phase of ups and downs for the number one, who even wasted a first opportunity to close the match. The North American, braver than the rest and firmer in the exchanges, linked games to equalize the set and force a tiebreaker. In the tie-break, Sabalenka imposed her experience. The young American Iva Jovic only needed 53 minutes to defeat the Ukrainian Yulia Putintseva 6-0 and 6-1 and become the rival of the world number one.
