Carlos Alcaraz’s fairy tale at the US Open is over. The Russian Daniil Medvedev was in charge of starting the last pages by defeating the Spaniard 7-6 (3), 6-1, 3-6 and 6-3 and avoiding the final that everyone expected from the beginning of the tournament ; It will be Medvedev and not Alcaraz who will compete this Sunday (10:00 p.m. Spanish time) in the New York final against Novak Djokovic.
Alcaraz, current champion of the tournament and with a streak of twelve consecutive victories in the Big Apple, withered before a Medvedev who learned the lesson from the beatings he took in the final of Indian Wells and in the semifinals of Wimbledon and avenged his year horrible against the Spanish with one of his best performances this season.
The Murcian, who believed he had the measure of Medvedev, ran into a much more aggressive Muscovite, more confident with the serve – he only lost it once in the entire match – and more convinced that his plan to be a rock from the start Basically it could work against the power of the Murcian.
And, even so, the opportunities flowed first to Alcaraz, who was the first and only one to have break points in his favor with 2-1 in the first set. Medvedev, with the tone of the entire match, saved them and caused a carousel of services that continued until the tiebreaker. At 6-6, Alcaraz held on until 3-3, when he collapsed. Not only did he lose the next four games, he also took a 6-1 run in the next set. And it could have been worse, because Medvedev had opportunities to win every game. It would have been the third loss for Alcaraz after those suffered against Stefanos Tsitsipas in the US Open 2021 and against Marton Fucsovics in Winston Salem 2021.
With two sets down, Alcaraz was facing the first time in his career of raising a score of this style. And he showed signs of hope by going ahead 4-1, with the only break he made on Medvedev’s serve and closing the set 6-3. It was time to show the Russian that Alcaraz was not going to leave easily and that, if he wanted the ticket to the final against Djokovic, he would have to sweat it out.
But as during the entire match, Alcaraz forgave and Medvedev did not. With three balls to take the lead that the Murcian missed at 1-1, the Russian did not forgive the ones he had at 2-3. He opened a gap and allowed himself the luxury of serving for the match at 5-3. He gave Alcaraz three more chances to get back into the game and along the way he wasted three final points, but there was no change in the script. With a shot to break the ball, Medvedev signed his third final at the US Open, after 2019 (lost) and 2021 (won) and prevents Alcaraz from equaling the record of Roger Federer, the last one who repeated his victory in these tracks back in 2008.
«I am not mature enough to handle these types of matches. I have to learn from it,” the Spaniard said at a press conference. «I can’t waste the opportunities in the first set. You can’t have a disconnection like the one I had from 3-3 in the tie break. These are things that I have to improve if I want to win more Grand Slams,” said the Spaniard, who is moving away in the race for number one. With the Grands chapter closed, Alcaraz has a disadvantage of 1,460 points with Djokovic that could be extended to 2,060 if the Serbian wins the final this Sunday.
The Murcian’s next stop is, in principle, the group stage of the Davis Cup next week in Valencia, where Spain will face Serbia, South Korea and the Czech Republic.
2023-09-09 10:39:59
#Medvedev #dethrones #Alcaraz #mail
