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Alcaraz secures world number 4 after advancing to the Umag final

Carlos Alcaraz will play the Umag final after overcoming the Italian with more trouble than expected Giulio Zeppieri, 168 in the world, in three disputed sets (7-5, 4-6, 6-3) that lasted almost three hours. The Spaniard, who already won his first ATP title last year in Croatia, This ensures that he climbs to number 4 in the ATP rankingthe highest of his brilliant and incipient career.

Alcaraz, who reaches his sixth final of the year, more than any other tennis player this season, he is the youngest ‘Top 4’ since Rafa Nadal achieved it in June 2005. Seventeen years later, another Spaniard repeats the feat and there are already ten tennis players in our country who have been in such a privileged position since Manolo Santana and Andres Gimeno inaugurated the list in the 1960s, still in the amateur era.

What was not in the plans is that this achievement would be so suffered, but already the first round was a full-fledged delivery in which Alcaraz flirted with disaster, until the point of having to pick up three set balls. A scenario, as we say, with which nobody counted, especially when the Murcian managed to break his rival’s service in the third game and gain an advantage.

But an enthusiastic Zeppieri, far from throwing in the towel, insisted on embarrassing an Alcaraz whose serve did not work and, therefore, he suffered on serve, to the point of having to face up to eight break balls in four of his six serving times.

the pupil of John Charles Ferrero He was solving these problems until the eighth game, when he ended up giving up his serve after a forehand that was too long that balanced the contest.

The transalpine tennis player, in the match of his life at 20 years old -I had never played against a ‘top 10’ before-, I was increasingly emboldened and he flew on the back of his powerful serve. The problem was an Alcaraz with the face of very few friends.

Thus, a tenth game with dramatic overtones was reached in which the Spaniard had to pull his entire class to stay alive in this first set, solving those three balls of sets already mentioned with two forehand winners and a trademark volley.

Alcaraz took his breath and returned to the charge, achieving a second service break that ultimately was final for the luck of the set, although the duel was far from being finished.

Among other things because Zeppieri avoided a break early in the second set with three aces that frustrated the wishes of the Spanish to live a somewhat calmer match.

Ankle sprain and fright

What’s more, what flew over the ITC Stella Maris in Umag was the tragedy when Alcaraz sprained his right ankle trying to reach a drop shot by Zeppieri that, to make matters worse, hadn’t even gotten around the net.

For an instant, the Murcian grimaced and the stands held their breath, but the blood did not reach the river. Of course, Alcaraz had to go through the boxes and he played the rest of the match with a heavy bandage on that ankle.

At this point, the problem was that Zeppieri was very rocky on serve, putting all the pressure on a Alcaraz that perhaps he had foreseen another type of meeting against a rival who, after all, had not won a single ATP match until this week in Croatia.

Thus it was until a tenth game in which Zeppieri subtracted again to close the second sleeve, a copy of the first one that this time smiled at the Italianextending a game that at this point was very far from having a clear owner.

At this point, it is not that the Murcian saw the wolf’s ears but that the wolf had teeth and threatened to devour him. This undoubtedly served as an incentive for Alcaraz who put all his efforts into starting the third and decisive set with a break that gave him some peace of mind, which he achieved thanks to a great backhand cross that he celebrated angrily.

Zeppieri has cramps

Immediately after, the Murcian not only consolidated the break but also achieved a second, putting on track what, now, seemed like a comfortable victory. The problem is that Zeppieri did not seem to let go and resumed hostilities with determination before a Alcaraz who perhaps relaxed excessively after so much suffering, giving up his serve twice and returning the swords to their highest point.

With a tie at three in this third set, the Italianless accustomed to games of this nature, began to have physical problems in the form of cramps and it was fading until he gave up a last blank serve in which he could barely move. Alcaraz had won, but no one can take away the scare.

Alcaraz’s rival in the final will also be from Alcaraz Jannik Sinner, who comfortably beat his compatriot Franco Agamenone by 6-1 and 6-3. Sinner was the ‘executioner’ of Alcaraz at Wimbledon so the final provides a great opportunity for revenge for Juan Carlos Ferrero’s pupil.

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