Carlos Alcarazexempt from the initial round of the Paris-Bercy Masters 1000 as second seed, debuted and lost this Tuesday in his debut, something that had never happened this season in the previous 15 tournaments. Their win/loss balance is: 63/10 and the ATP Finals in Turin (November 12 to 19) appear on the horizon.
His executioner was Roman Safiullin, 45th in the ATP ranking, with a score of 6-3 and 6-4, in 1 hour and 36 minutes.. Alcaraz will remain 500 points behind Novak Djokovic in Race 2023, but the Serbian debuts tomorrow at the French TMS with every chance in the world to finish as world number one because he is the best player on the circuit and even more so on a hard indoor surface. Djokovic was gaining sensations by winning today in the doubles with his compatriot Miomir Kecmanovic.
The Russian was not an easy opponent, who fell to the bottom of the draw due to the resignation of Cameron Norrie due to injury. Safiullin, coming from the previous phasewas planted in summer in the Wimbledon quarterfinals and then played and lost the Chengdu final with Alexander Zverev.
The game started almost an hour and a half later than scheduled time. due to the length of the previous duel between Gael Monfils and Francisco Cerúndolo, which ended with the Argentine’s victory.
Alcaraz, as he always does when he wins the draw, chose to subtract. In the third game the first break was scored, partly facilitated by two double faults from their opponent.
Safiullin, shot by the three matches played between the previous and the initial round, scored five of the next six games to take the lead on the scoreboard. It was time to come back.
To find the last time that the world number two had turned around an adverse result, you had to go back to the semifinals in Cincinnati with the Polish Hubert Hurkacz.
Carlitos, with too many unforced errors from the white line, would lose the fourth and fifth rounds. For the first time since the round of 16 of the US Open, The Murcian played without the bandage on the thigh of his right leg. The rest, after he resigned from Basel, has allowed him to minimize the pain.
The 26-year-old tennis player from Podolsk had beaten two top 10 players in his career: Stefanos Tsitsipas (Marseille 2022) and Alexander Zverev (Shanghai 2023).
Safiullin stopped the confrontation five minutes, with 1-0 and 0-30, due to a light that had turned on in the ceiling and it was annoying at the time of service.
Alcaraz missed two break options, with 15-40, which would have given him air. However, he seemed to have regained the good feeling with his racket.
He confirmed it with his second break in the fourth round.. The score shot up to 3-1 and I served for him. He then faltered again with the service of Juan Carlos Ferrero’s pupil. From a possible 4-1 it went to 3-2.
New reaction from Safiullin
The script was reminiscent of what happened in the initial manga. “Come on Charlie, come on“, the Spaniard repeated himself. The Russian, in a flash, had returned to equalize at three games. His victim was erratic with the backhand and he showed it later by giving up another serve. Goodbye to Paris and goodbye to number one. And Daniil Medvedev is launching for second position.
The last time Carlitos had chained two defeats was more than a year agobetween the setback in the Davis Cup with Felix Auger-Aliassime and Astana against David Goffin.
The Bercy round of 16 duel between Safiullin and Karen Khachanov guarantees the presence of a Russian tennis player in the quarterfinals.
2023-10-31 21:31:31
#Masters #Paris #Bercy #Carlos #Alcaraz #loses #debut #ParisBercy #Safiullin #goodbye #number
:quality(85)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/3YJDTHJW75FKHBKISLPAUUMKCM.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1)
