After Rafael Nadal it has touched Novak Djokovic. does not forgive Carlos Alcaraz who continues to shoot to the top and this Sunday he will play the final of the Mutua Madrid Open after beating the world number 1 in the semifinals 6-7 (5), 7-5 and 7-6 (5). In an electric match. A battle of 3 hours and 35 minutes that has been decided in the ‘tie break’ of the third set. A victory that will take time to forget Alcaraz who, in two days, has knocked out his idol and the Serbian tennis player. “Head, Heart and Balls”as his grandfather asks him every time he enters a track.
And that’s what he did. With that mentality, grit, physical strength, but also great tennis, the Murcian tennis player has earned the right to opt for the fourth title of the season against the winner of the semifinal against Alexander Zverev o Stefanos Tsitsipas.
alcaraz he has played you to you to Djokovic. In the first set, he broke his serve and maintained the advantage until the Serbian tennis player managed to equalize the score (4-4) and force a ‘tie break’ in which he needed four ‘set balls’ despite to have a 5-1 lead. The cry of rage after scoring the sleeve in 62 minutes demonstrated the tension that the number 1 lived before the self-confidence of his young rival.
brave answer
he was not daunted alcaraz. Unlike. She held her pulse in the second sleeve. He saved another three ‘break points‘ (3-2, 5-4 and 6-5) to, in his first opportunity, snatch Djokovic’s serve and score the set, with a spectacular drop shot, the seventh without failing in the match. Raising their arms, shouting and also challenging the Serbian to force a third set, with the central player Manolo Santana inflamed by this young and brave tennis player, capable of anything.
And anything was knocking out number 1, Djokovic, the tournament champion in 2011, 16, 19), winner of 37 Masters 1,000 and 20 Grand Slams. She looked for him convinced. And he got it. Djokovic he scrambled to avoid it. He saved five ‘break points’ (2-1 and 3-2). The sebio had his first ‘break point’ with 3-3, it escaped him or, better, alcaraz he wriggled like a cat on his back for more than eight minutes to avoid it.
The fight to save the serve was fundamental. Whoever lost it went to the locker room defeated. And it was number 1 who left. He saved the first match ball with a spectacular ace to keep it 5-5. and force a decisive ‘tie break’. Impossible best ending for a spectacular match. 12 points to the limit to knock down the rival. And after 3 hours and 35 minutes he was the one who wrote it down. With a right impossible to return. Alcaraz’s 51st winning point. “A match in Madrid is molto longo”, he wrote on the lens of the television camera to certify the victory. For the first time, on clay, a tennis player bowed down to Nadal and Djokovic. Notice for Roland Garros.
second grand finale
Greater effectiveness, impossible. In his fourth participation in a Masters 1,000, the Murcian tennis player will play his second final, after being the first Spaniard to win the title in Miami, just a month ago. alcaraz He has added the 27th victory of the season in which he has already won the titles in Rio de Janeiro, Miami and Barcelona.
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alcaraz will face in the final this Sunday the winner of the semifinal that this Saturday night
The Tunisian Jabeur, queen of Madrid
The Tunisian Ons Jabeur has conquered his first Masters 1,000 by beating the American Jessica Pegula 7-5, 0-6 and 6-2, in the final of the Mutua Madrid Open.
Jabeur , 27, is the first Tunisian tennis player and the first Arab player, male or female, to reach the ‘top ten’ (7 in the world). She had also been the first woman to reach the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam, at the Australian Open 2020, and the first to win a WTA title, in Birmingham in 2021. The only one who had a record until winning the trophy in Madrid, succeeding the Belarusian in the list of winners Aryna Sabalenka.
(Teledeporte and Movistar) play Alexander Zverevcurrent tournament champion, and Stefanos Tsitsipas. In their previous matches alcaraz He dominates the Greek tennis player 3-0 and has lost on the two occasions he has faced the German tennis player.