Davidovich jumps the bench in Monte Carlo

Rafael Nadal is not here, injured in the chest. Carlos Alcaraz was eliminated in the second round. But it doesn’t matter, Spanish tennis doesn’t stop. Alejandro Davidovich, in his favorite tournament, reached the semifinals this Friday after overcoming Taylor Fritz (2-6, 6-4, 6-3). It is the best result of his sports career, his first semifinals of a Masters 1,000, precisely on the stage where he was uncovered last season, when he reached the quarterfinals.

This time he has broken his own ceiling. In a match in which he had to dig, to undermine the morale of a Fritz who was better for a set and a half, the man from Malaga has earned a place among the four best in the Principality.

Fritz, won from Indian Wells a few weeks ago, started like a cyclone, taking the first set 6-2, without giving options despite abdominal problems that required medical attention, and maintained the level until the middle of the second set . Davidovich, who was waiting, crouched like a cat, slowly raised his tennis, winning over the crowd, getting inside the American’s head, who noticed signs of wear as the match heated up.

Davidovich missed the first two break balls he had in the second quarter and took advantage of the third. He had to save three and needed two set points to level the match. The breaking balls were the torture of the man from Malaga, who wasted 15 of the 19 he had. But it did not matter, because in the third set they emerged from all sides. Davidovich trailed 2-3, but scored four games in a row to close out his first berth in the semifinals. He framed it like this on camera, with a pink marker. «First victory in the quarterfinals of a Masters 1,000».

“I am very, very, very, very happy. I’m enjoying it a lot,” Davidovich said at the foot of the track.

Davidovich’s week only gets better, after beating world number one Novak Djokovic, he beat David Goffin, winner in Marrakesh last week, and now he gets rid of a top 15 like Fritz.

The next obstacle will be the winner of the duel between the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov and the Pole Hubert Hurkacz.

With this result, Davidovich improves on last year’s quarterfinals and rises to 32nd place in the ranking, equaling the best ranking of his career, which he achieved in August 2021. With one more victory, the Spaniard will be placed on the verge of get into the top 25 in the world.

These will be the third semifinals at the ATP level for Davidovich, who has lost all three he has played. He fell to Pablo Cuevas in Estoril 2019, to Alexander Zverev in Cologne 2020 and to Albert Ramos in Estoril 2021. The only set he has achieved in this round was against Cuevas.