Seven days later, Carlos Alcaraz returns to a final. Champion in Buenos Aires, he wants to repeat that feeling of being the best of the moment in this tournament in Rio where it all began: his emergence, his start towards the heights, his landing in elite tennis that already has him as a dangerous rival and candidate for everything. At the moment, he wants to add his second title in 2023, recovered from the injury that left him without the Australian Open. He will try again against Cameron Norrie, who beat Bernabé Zapata in a match of almost three hours. In the tenth ATP final for the Spaniard, he meets the Briton again, whom he already left without a trophy a week ago in Buenos Aires.
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| 6 | 7 | 6 |
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| 7 | 5 | 0 |
Alcaraz, current number 2 in the world, again very close to recovering the throne, has gone from less to more in Rio. And already in the semifinals, the Chilean Nicolás Jarry, 139 in the deceptive world because there is tennis and the good one in that 1’98 height, was that victim that Murcia likes.
With huge arm-shaped levers, Jarry appealed to the speed of hitting. Tremendous serve and drive on his right hand (220 kilometers as normal), but also backhand power. What this Alcaraz has is less age, eight years, but many more resources. That if the game has to be done quickly, there is that very fast forehand that is taken out of nowhere, but that if the rival proposes the same thing, there is also calm, high and deep balls, changes of pace with cuts and drops to disrupt the options of the opponent and begin to impose his rhythm.
It took a lot for the Murcian to find the formula that would deactivate the Chilean’s confidence. Very quick to move, it costs him little to assemble his arm and lash out. And he feels comfortable there, being the owner of the first blow, of the attack, of the serves and the dizzying returns that steal the opponent’s reaction time. There Alcaraz suffered, 3-0 down in just 12 minutes. Clay court, but playing style and times on a hard surface.
Jarry warned with two direct aces in the first game, but also Alcaraz winning the points with second service. That was where everything was going to be decided. To see who was leading the points, who was in charge of whom. And although the Chilean began tipping the balance in his favor, he learned to read Alcaraz’s serves and, point by point, he got into his head. Even to disrupt that closing of the first set that Jarry had with 5-3 and serve. The Spanish threw fists, found the rival’s crack to the rest and blank. And he extended it with an imperial serve turn, also blank, eleven consecutive points to tie at five, to make the Chilean nervous.
Yet this Jarry wanders an oblivious to his world 139 game. At least this version of the Chilean that has grown in these days of American clay. He closed the confidence gap with another pair of top returns at the start of the tie break. With that forehand that manages to open the court, a wonderful and unattainable angle for the Spaniard, who endured what he could but agreed to give up the first set, in an hour, before the good hand of the rival, who was forcing him to adjust to the lines And they didn’t always get inside.
It was not going to be easy to break the confidence of the Chilean. Thirteen minutes lasted the first game of the second set. Much more than a first game because Alcaraz was 0-40 and it gave him wings to add it in his favor. He had options to put some advantage, Jarry clung to his speed and took it out of him, but the set was upside down. Despite that strange gesture from the Spaniard, he threw the racket after losing the second game.
The dynamics began to change because the Murcian made Jarry think too much, who no longer maintained the same level, bordering on perfection, of his forehands. Despite raising the level, starting to gain confidence because the holes were found, he suffered the 2 in the world. Angry with himself because he missed a good option in the fifth game: “if you have one, take it in,” he yelled to himself. Even forced to call the physio in the eleventh game to massage the left thigh. But he was there, close to breaking down the wall, because almost everything was left and there were too many bullets for Jarry. The Chilean lowered the speed of his serves, the effectiveness of his rights, the head. He gave up the second set, with his serve, and blank.
There Jarry lost, uncomfortable behind the Spanish ball, unbalanced when the point went beyond the third exchange and he was not the one who hit first. Trust cracked, the deepest and most forceful Alcaraz made his way, the one who no longer allowed himself a mistake, the one who had fun and asked for applause from a crowd that already adores him anywhere in the world. In the first set, it was 0-3 in 12 minutes; in the third, it was 3-0 in 14. As if instead of wasting energy, he was recovering it with the passing of blows and games. And it was a 4-0, exhausted Jarry. And it was 5-0, Jarry nullified. And it was a 6-0, imperial Alcaraz (26 winners and 17 errors; for Jarry’s 32 winners), which grew in the face of his own doubts and the dizzying lashes of the Chilean.
Alcaraz is just one step away from his second title in 2023, and from touching the number 1 again, because if he wins, he would tie on points with Novak Djokovic (6,980), but he would not unseat the Serbian from the ATP throne since In this situation, the person with the most points won in major tournaments (Grand Slams, Masters 1,000) prevails. In this case, Djokovic wins with 5,820 points for the 5,090 won by Alcaraz in this type of competition. The real tiebreaker may come in the first week of March, when the Serb competes in Dubai and Alcaraz, in Mexico.