‘Boiling into a future rivalry,’ Fans in shock as Carlos Alcaraz loses his first match on Monte Carlo debut to rival Sebastian Korda
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Carlos Alcaraz
Sebastian Korda couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw his first match point: the young American had fired a forehand down the line that landed a few millimeters below the baseline. Korda was permitted to celebrate a few seconds later, after a total playing duration of 3:02 hours. Then his 7,6 (2), 6,7 (5), 6,3 victory over Carlos Alcaraz seemed a foregone conclusion.
Korda had a memorable victory a few weeks back when he defeated another Spaniard on his racket. Rafael Nadal was making his comeback at the time at Indian Wells. Not so for Alcaraz, who had arrived at the principality as the winner from Miami. And thus, one day after Novak Djokovic retired from the first 1000s of the year, we find ourselves in the first 1000s of the year.
Korda, who defeated Botic van de Zandschulp in straight sets in the first round, will now face either Marin Cilic or Taylor Fritz. Carlos Alcaraz’s balance sheet is presently 1-1. Last year, in the final of the #NextGen Masters, the Spaniard had won their lone previous meeting.
Before the first change of ends, an ill-timed Korda double fault gave Alcaraz a 4-2 mini-break, and a backhand error gave the Spaniard two more set opportunities, which he converted with a forehand winner to force a deciding.
Alcaraz, buoyed by the comeback, started the fourth set with a 2-0 lead, but like with most leads, it was short-lived. Korda would go on to win five of the following six games and serve for the match.
Despite Alcaraz’s efforts to save a match point, Korda would not be denied, crossing the finish line just as the contest approached three hours. Despite the wind, Korda may be proud of his constantly aggressive attitude, which resulted in 36 wins and 59 unforced errors, as well as 44 attempts, winning 34 of them.
With so much on the line, Carlos Alcaraz came out swinging and was the first to breakpoint, putting Korda on serve from the opening game on. From there, the momentum swung wildly, with Korda winning nine of the next 11 points to fall just short of a 5-2 lead. Alcaraz would break back and serve twice in the first set, but Korda would break back each time and dominate the tiebreak. Sebastian Korda had the same number of unforced errors as Alcaraz in the 66-minute set, but he had twice as many winners.
To begin the second set, the Spanish youngster responded quickly, storming through the opening three games, forcing a backhand mistake from Korda to break service and allowing the American only one point on the return. Korda, on the other hand, would quickly climb on the board and tie the game at four games apiece after a following exchange of breaks. The return-heavy encounter was reminiscent of Korda’s 18-game, a fifth-set loss against Karen Khachanov, which featured 13 breaks of service; 22 games into his match with Alcaraz, half of the games were breaks. Winds gusting to almost 20 miles per hour added to the emotional stakes of a Next-Next Gen showdown.
Korda saved three set points when it counted most to put the pressure back on Alcaraz, who responded by saving two break points as the match headed—however unlikely—to a second tiebreaker.
Twitter had some interesting reactions to the loss of Rising potential star Carlos Alcaraz
Fans are not always positive about the outcome of the match. They were some mixed reactions from the crowd, but most of them were ppsitive comments about Sebastian Korda, the player with some stunning shots, while Alcaraz got some motivating responses, while some gave negative comments.
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Harini Mahesh
(159 Articles Published)