‘Down but not out’ Carlos Alcaraz saves a fantastic point against Alexander Zverev in the finals of Madrid Open
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Carlos Alcaraz
World No. 9 Carlos Alcaraz and the World No. 3 Alexander Zverev will be fighting for the 2022 Madrid Open title this year with the German player being the defending champion while Alcaraz is the crowd favourite. The duo is meeting for the first time on Clay with their prior two meetings, played on hardcourts, and went the German’s way.
On the way to the finals, Zverev defeated Marin Cilic, Lorenzo Musetti, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Stefanos Tsitsipas to keep himself in the position to retain the title in a successful defence. Alcaraz on the other side has gone through comparatively tougher assignments with Nikoloz Basilashvili, Cameron Norrie, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic bowing down to the brilliance of the teenager who celebrated his 19th birthday this week in Caja Magica.
With Zverev looking for his first title of the season and Alcaraz going for his fourth and the finals of a Masters event, there is a lot at stake for both players and no one is backing down from the fight. One such instance was shown by Alcaraz during the first set of the match.
With Zverev approaching the net and hitting the ball on sides, Alcaraz had to stretch to his extreme to hit the ball back at the German. After an exchange of backhands, Zverev hit the ball far wide of Alcaraz who had to hit back with a stretched forehand shot which hardly crossed the net as Zverev moved further ahead and hit it to Alcaraz’s left this time. The teen made his way to the ball sliding and returning a lofted shot that was taken directly by Zverev but mistimed it poorly to hand the point to the Spaniard which should have gone his way.
Carlos Alcaraz takes the first set
With the two players going at each other, Alcaraz has drawn the first blood as he takes the first set with a 6-3 score to put all the pressure on the World No. 3 who now has to win the next two sets and control the confident and charging teenager who is now just a set away from clinching his second Masters-1000 title and his 4th clay title of his career having won 3 on clay and 1 on hardcourt so far.
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Sarthak Shitole
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