On the day of the rush and the double rounds –an endless program that condenses a dozen matches when four should have been played–, with the public, the organizers and the tennis players scanning the horizon to see if the clouds appear, Pablo Carreño and Casper Ruud They decide to have more fun: they lengthen their clash to infinity.
Both fight in the cool of the evening, and tie a set at seven pm, and then they stretch even more, almost until dusk, and the public huddles in their coats.
And no one gives up because everyone wants to enjoy the show because later on, the Alcaraz-Tsitsipás will come, the match In uppercase.
–We want more – the fans of the Rafa Nadal court WhatsApp, perhaps remembering the troubles of the day before (only two games had been played on Thursday, the rainy day; the organization recalls that it will return the amount of the tickets to who requests it).
And, as if to please them even more, Carreño commits himself to the extreme. He loses the first round but rescues three match points in the second, and definitely recovers and projects himself to the semifinal (4-6, 7-6 (8) and 6-3), where Diego Schwartzman is waiting for him.
And you have to wait until 8:09 p.m. to see the outcome of the fight. When Carreño closes the pass, the chroniclers do the math: he has spent 3h02m against Ruud, and 2h42m at noon against Sonego, and the balance says that, in total, Carreño has spent 5h44m on the track in a single day.
Not bad.
And then, now: the match.
(…)
Discomfort
The Greek, the first favorite of the tournament, never felt comfortable with Alcaraz’s display of resources
The matter deserves a rest.
–I had never seen such a crowd on this track at this time of night –the most veteran chroniclers agree.
And the pen occupies its place under the scoreboard, with views of Tibidabo and its Ferris wheel, a lighthouse on the mountain at night, and plays with the bunting that floats in the dark. But you’d better not get distracted.
The match it is a festival.
Disgruntled, Tsitsipás moves, the Greek colossus, the man who has lost two finals in the RCTB –both against Rafael Nadal, the last one last year– and who has been playing against the foot for three days, now waiting for the rain to get worse, now jumping to the track at night, cold and windy, and this time he faces a rival who is absolutely inspired.
Alcaraz (18), eleventh tennis player in the world, is no longer the future, but the present.
This is what Tsitsipas thinks, who understands this.
“Twice I’ve faced him, and I still don’t know how to beat him,” the Greek had confessed the day before.
The tennis festival, in its strictest sense, starts at 8:59 p.m. Just at that moment, Alcaraz signs the first left of him. She comes out perfect, cutting and very hidden, and that’s why Tsitsipas sees her late and runs forward but she doesn’t arrive and the audience licks her lips.
Triumph of Carreno
In the twilight, Carreño traced his appointment with Ruud; in total, he spent 5h44m to win his two matches
Es the match.
Already then, Carlos Alcaraz is a cyclone and Tsitsipas, a tormented Greek who thinks and thinks but cannot find the answers.
Everything works out for the Murcian, a wonderful tennis player whose appearance on the circuit fascinates the experts and confuses his rivals. A year ago, Alcaraz barely appeared among the top 120 in the world. On Monday he will already appear in the Top 10.
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-A year ago, you confessed to The vanguard that Top 20 looked in three years. On Monday it will be Top 10. He has made a lot of mistakes – she tells him.
“That’s a good mistake, don’t you think?” –She replies.
Who knows where it will be in a few months.
At this time of the night he is up against Tsitsipas, who is the fifth-ranked player in the world.
And?
Who rules is the Murcian. He vouches for his serve, his solid backhand, his range of resources (including his serve-volley) and, of course, his drop shot. The appearance of him is a blessing for the world of tennis. In the new era of burly and unexpected punchers (Medvedev, Zverev…), a unique tennis player emerges.
If I have insisted on the drop, it is because I think that Tsitsipas has a hard time running forward, rather than to the sides. And because I would say that I have a good drop.”
-If I have insisted on the drop, it is because I think it is difficult for Tsitsipas to run forward, more than to the sides. And because I would say that I have a good drop, says Alcaraz.
“You have everything, you have everything,” commented the audience, fascinated in the stands.
Not a soul leaves its locality. Only Tsitsipas seems to want to leave. Two left nails Alcaraz. Three four. At 9:23 p.m., he lost the service in white, after a long ball that grazed Alcaraz’s head. The first set is from Murcia.
next rival
The Murcian will face Alex de Miñaur this Saturday, eternal promise of Australian tennis
And the Greek reacted later, even going back two breaks in the second set, but then he seems to have hit the ceiling: overcome by setbacks, the pressure of the public, the two points that the judge snatches from him for having exceeded his visit to the bathroom (the permission is for three minutes; from then on, he is punished with a point for every half minute; the Greek has been absent for four minutes) and the magnificence of Alcaraz ends up unhinged.
-The truth is that I had never seen anything like this -says the Murcian already at night-. He had never seen a tennis player go to the bathroom in the middle of a break.
–And you thought he was doing it to distract you? –She asks him.
–Honestly, yes. He wanted to stop me. But she couldn’t.
And he says goodbye with a big laugh.
