2023-05-07 03:03:42
Carlos Alcaraz He has not been the only one who has had a birthday in the Mutua Madrid Open. The Spaniard blew out the 20 candles on May 5, the day he beat Coric in the semifinals and qualified for the match that decides the champion. Jan-Lennard Struff He turned 33 on April 25 and did so with a loss to Karatsev on track 8, one of the outer ones, in the qualifying phase. He didn’t have much to celebrate sportingly, but the last-minute casualties of the tournament, of Lestienne and of Fognini, they made him receive a surprise gift, because he was re-fished to play the final draw. He is what is called a Lucky Loser” (lucky loser), who has been making his way and making history and getting into the final, defeating in the semifinals, what things tennis has, the player who had beaten him in the previous one, Karatsev. “It’s a crazy story,” admitted the German.
It is the first “refished” that gets into the last game in a Masters 1,000, but in other tournaments of a lesser category there have been cases in which they have not only reached the final, they have also won it. There are not many, as they say in “cannaltenis.com”: Gunthardt (Springfield, 1978), Scanlon (Maui, 1978), Pato Clavet (Hilversun, 1990), Miniussi (Sao Paulo, 1991), Stakhovsky (Zagreb, 2008), Ram (Newport, 2009), Rublev (Umag, 2017), Leo Mayer (Hamburg, 2017), Sniped (Budapest, 2018) y Kwon (Adelaide 2, 2022).
“The truth…”, explains Pato Clavet, who was in the Magic Box watching how Rublev y Khachanov (trained by his brother Pepo Clavet) won the doubles final against Nopanna and Ebden (6-3, 3-6 and 10-3). “The truth is that it is a second chance, you had to be eliminated and it is like they give you a second life. You play, in my case, as you play more relaxed than with the tension of having entered through the ranking, it’s like a second chance, you face it with a different calm: ‘I have nothing to lose’; but on the other: ‘Since they have given me this second chance, let’s see if we take advantage of it’. You don’t think about winning the tournament, but you do think about continuing to advance without pressure, ”he adds.
“It was a turning point in my career”
“It was not an easy draw: I beat Her house, The dutch; to Martin Jaite that he was the 10th in the world, Camporesse in the semis, which were very tough with two tie breaks; and in the end to But only who had won all the Spaniards (Emilio Sanchez Vicario, Juan Aguilera, Sergi Bruguera), I don’t know if he came from the ‘qualifications’ or close to it, but he wasn’t seeded (he was number 296 in the world)”, he recalls his participation, and also what it meant for him: “It was my first title, in HilversumI lost in the previous one and he was injured or was injured, I don’t know that, LeconteThey told me I think the day before that it was Lucky Loser. In addition, my ranking was like e140 or 130 and something, I hadn’t been on the circuit for a long time, I was in the previous ones and when I won I entered the top 100, exactly 90, and from there I established myself and I didn’t drop below 100 until the end of my career It was a turning point in my career: in addition to the first title, installing myself in the top 100”.
Struff and injuries
Struff is not as young as Clavet was, but after Madrid he will be in the best ranking of his career. If he loses he will be the 28th in the world, with a rise of 37 places at once; And if he wins, he will be placed 21. He has become 29 in the world and has played a final, in Munich 2021, but in 2022 an injury to his right foot caused him to fall resoundingly. “It was hard. Last year was a difficult year for me. I didn’t play well at the beginning of the year. I hurt my foot, broke my right big toe and was about to start practicing again when I had some other foot problems that prevented me from playing on clay, where I had a lot of points. I came out of the top 100, 150, 160. I started the year like 160. Yes, it was difficult last year because I felt that I did not play the best tennis that I could”, admits the German. And he cites the preseason of this course in Tenerife as the key to start climbing. In Madrid his time has come, to the second opportunity. “You shouldn’t give up, you always have to try again”, is the lesson that Struff draws.
#give #life #and..