The Spanish Carlos Alcaraz This Saturday ended the streak of 19 consecutive victories of the Italian Jannik Sinnercame back and won 1-6, 6-3 y 6-2 to fly to the final of the Indian Wells Masters 1,000 and also retain second position in the world ranking.
Alcaraz revalidated the victory achieved last year in this same round against Sinner and will fight this Sunday against one between the Russian Daniil Medvedev and the American Tommy Paul for the fifth Masters 1,000 of his career in six finals.
The Murcian returned to a final for the first time since last August, when he lost against Serbian Novak Djokovic at the Cincinnati Masters 1,000 and took revenge on Sinner, who had beaten him in the last two precedentsin Miami and Beijing 2023.
Alcaraz stops Sinner. / EFE
It had been six years since an Indian Wells champion had returned to the final the following year. The last to achieve this was the Swiss Roger Federer. Now, Alcaraz has a double crown within his reach in the Californian desert, where he has eleven consecutive victories.
Cold blood and comeback
This time it wasn’t the bees but the rain stops the Alcaraz match. After the long wait for the surreal ‘bee invasion’ in the duel won against Zverev in the quarterfinals, this Saturday the match stopped for almost three hours due to the water falling into the plant.
Sinner was leading 2-1 without a break before the break and resumed the match with a stellar tennis level which allowed him to get the first break of the match to take a 3-1 lead. He had an Alcaraz ball to immediately put the match back on balance, but Sinner annulled it and consolidated the break to escape 4-1.
If the Italian was forceful with the serve, Alcaraz suffered with his second serve, with which he could only take two points out of eight in the first set. That, and Sinner’s deep and solid shots forced several errors from the Murcian, who gave up serve again, at fifteen, and lost the first set with a resounding 6-1 in just 36 minutes.
Tactical modifications
Alcaraz knew how to recover and faced the second set with lucidity and forcefulness. He limited unforced errors and changed pace more to trouble Sinner. It worked for him. With 2-1 in the light, he got two breaking balls and achieved the break with a perfect volley with his right foot. The tennis level continued to be very high and, with 3-1, Sinner took a wonderful fifteen that brought the public to their feet present. Both the Italian and Alcaraz smiled at the end of the point.
The Murcian recovered confidence and inertia and he knew how to cancel the two breaking balls achieved, with effort by Sinner. He canceled the first at 4-2 and the second at 5-3, with an extraordinary parallel backhand down the line. An elegant drop shot confirmed the 6-3 which, after one hour and 22 minutes, sent the match to the decisive set. Sinner had only lost one set in the last 23 played, but could not contain Alcaraz’s reaction.
Had the wind in favor of the Murcian and he came out to bite. He led Sinner to 40-all in his first turn, won his serve game to nil, and broke in the third game. Sinner, who began to touch his left calf, struggled to manage the changes in rhythm from the Murcian, who sent him several balls with little weight that took away his rhythm.
Alcaraz felt more and more comfortable, in control of the points against a Sinner who was suffering a lot to find a way to put the Murcian in trouble. He did not miss the opportunity for the winner of two ‘greats’. He got another break, to fifteen, and made his way to an authoritarian 6-2 that gave him the ticket for the final.
2024-03-17 07:27:59
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