Carlos Alcaraz quickly resolved his commitment in the quarterfinals of the Umag ATP 250 tournamentthe first he won just a year ago in his sports career, at defeat Argentine Facundo Bagnis 6-0 and 6-4. The winner this year of the Masters 1,000 in Miami and Madrid showed an excellent level of play, especially in the first set, which he won by blanking his opponent. The Italian Giulio Zeppieri, number 168 in the world and 20 years old, will be his rival this Saturday in a semi-final that is also very unbalanced.
In just 27 minutes, Carlos Alcaraz settled the first set by a resounding 6-0. The player from El Palmar was a cyclone, with a consistent game. Already in the first game he broke Bagnis’ serve, powerless against his opponent’s repertoire of shots. And in the third and fifth, after two separate deuces, Alcaraz took the point at the first opportunitywho closed the sleeve at the first opportunity with thirty-two winning points and an effectiveness of 85% with the first service.
The second set was a little closer, but even so, at no time did the number five in the world seem to have any doubts. He started again by breaking Bagnis and went on to string together eight straight games. In the ninth came the first point for the Argentine, much celebrated by the public, who wanted the game to go on. Juan Carlos Ferrero’s pupil wanted to liquidate the quarterfinal commitment on the fast track, but gave up the fifth game with service from his rival. The Argentine grew, gained confidence and began to tie the games with his serve to be 4-3 and later 5-4, serving with more depth and causing some problems for Alcaraz at the return. Bagnis had his first break point of the entire match in the tenth game, with the Murcian serving to win, but with a tremendous right hand and subsequent serve to which the Argentine did not know how to respond., appeared before the first chance to close the clash, but was surprised by a drop left in the net. However, on the second match point he did succeed with a powerful serve.
The Murcian’s next rival at the Goran Ivanisevic stadium this Saturday will be the Italian Giulio Zeppieri, world number 168 and 20 years old, who reached the final draw from qualifying. The tennis player from Rome gave the surprise by defeating the Spanish veteran Bernabé Zapata, 7-5 and 6-4, already signing his best result in an ATP circuit tournament. This year’s most outstanding results were reaching the quarterfinals of four Challenger tournaments. On the other side of the table, the Italian Jannik Sinner, second seeded, fulfilled the predictions by beating the Spanish Roberto Carballés 6-4 and 7-5. His rival today in the semifinals will be the Italian Franco Agamenone, another tennis player from the previous one who defeated Marco Cecchinato (6-2 and 6-1).
