Since Rafael Nadal there has not been an equal superiority on the Philippe Chatrier court. Few, very few throughout the history of Roland Garros have been able to beat a former finalist of this tournament with such force and superiority in a quarterfinal. But Carlos Alcaraz is one of those chosen ones. One of those tennis players called to make history and one of those that the stands enjoy even when he submits his rival to an impressive beating.
For this reason, not even the French public, already accustomed to Nadal’s cathartic victories, was able to lift Stefanos Tsitsipas off the canvas on Tuesday. They only had to enjoy and bow down to the victory of Alcaraz (6-2, 6-1 and 7-6 (6)) with which the Spaniard gets into the semifinals of the tournament, where the most anticipated match against Novak Djokovic will come.
It was Alcaraz’s best match of the season, his best tennis minutes, and that is why the duel against Tsitsipas, who ended up acknowledging his rival’s superiority on the court – “he hits him so hard that I can’t control the ball,” he told him to his father- it was so short (2 hours and 10 minutes). Alcaraz, who had won his four previous matches against the Greek, has his morale high and since that surprising triumph at the US Open 2021, in which he made himself known to the world, his clashes have been unbalanced. This one, the most.
not a chance
Because from the beginning, the Murcian gave the feeling that there was no way he was going to get hurt, that Tsitsipas’ backhand was not going to have a chance to penetrate him and that his right was going to be the owner of the game. The Spaniard put his most offensive version on the table -36 winners- and reduced to a minimum a Tsitsipas who was languishing on the court, finding no answer to anything and asking his father for inert help, who could only applaud and wait for him to finish Storm.
The public, happy with Alcaraz, but eager for more fighting, had to be content with some isolated game, with a 0-15 on the Murcian’s serve, but little else. Tsitsipas choked on Alcaraz’s tennis and suffered anxiety on the court that made him a victim. The scoreline evidenced it: 6-2 the first set in half an hour, 6-1 the second in another half hour.
The Greek tennis player’s greatest resistance came in the third round, when he was able to loosen up slightly and saved five match points, but the final push was of no use to him. He scared an Alcaraz a bit, as the fans turned against him to increase the price of their tickets and he even forced a tiebreaker, but as soon as the Spaniard isolated himself again and clicked, boosted by a couple of “! Come on!” that he released in response to the crowd, the exhibition ended. Now comes the hard part, the two-time winner here, Novak Djokovic.
It will be the second confrontation between the two, after last year’s semifinals in Madrid, where Alcaraz won.
Djokovic escapes from Khachanov
The Serbian Novak Djokovic was close to getting more than a scare against Karen Khachanov, a tennis player whom he has won eleven of the twelve times they have faced. After losing the first set, Djokovic accelerated against the Russian (4-6, 7-6 (0), 6-2 and 6-4) and already has eleven semifinals at Roland Garros, only behind Rafael Nadal’s fourteen.
In addition, Djokovic, with 45 semifinals among all the Grand Slams, is only one away from the total record of Roger Federer, who in his sports career achieved 46. Nadal, for his part, has 38.
The Serbian, who was asked about his rival at a press conference this Thursday, did not hesitate to flatter Alcaraz. “He’s a great guy. He has a lot of intensity on the court, he reminds me of someone from his country… We played once and he beat me 7-6 in the third. He is going to be the great challenge, he is the man to beat ».
2023-06-06 22:52:57
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