Alcaraz’s Dream Run Comes to an End in Miami

Alcaraz during his match against Dimitrov (REUTERS).

“Let him hear you, let him hear you.” Juan Carlos Ferrero shouted to his pupil from the stands. Alcaraz, who had just saved the 1-5 in favor of Dimitrov in the final set, was rushing his options to stay alive in a match in which he never felt comfortable. Carlitos was playing without a parachute at that moment and at times his blows could be heard throughout Miami. However, his attempt at a comeback was immediately stifled (2-6 and 4-6) by the Bulgarian, incontestable throughout the Spanish early morning. The Murcian, who arrived with fantastic inertia to the quarterfinal duel, suddenly went blind. He will not be able to join that select club of players who have achieved the sunshine double, winning the Indian Wells and Miami tournaments consecutively.

Dimitrov had slipped into his mind. In Alcaraz’s game there was nothing redeemable, neither the service, nor his forehand, much less the rest of him. Overwhelmed by the high speed of the court and the weight of the balls – different from those of the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells – he soon became immersed in a sea of ​​doubts and was unable to emerge. Alcaraz vanished. The world number two, immersed in a dream March after his title in Indian Wells and his brilliant start in Miami, hesitated and the doubts devoured him. Except for the match against Dimitrov, to forget, Alcaraz has had an excellent March with the achievement of his second Indian Wells and the reunion with his tennis.

The world number one in tennis, Carlos Alcaraz, has three brothers. Two of them are also involved in the world of tennis

On the court you can see a much more solid, focused and complete player than the version with which he said goodbye the previous year. And, thus, his tennis has flowed again with the arrival of spring. After a few months of doubts with his game, Alcaraz seems very comfortable on the court again. “I don’t know if this is the best tennis I’m playing, but it’s the best feeling. I’m feeling great on the court, I’m moving very well. I think they are the best feelings since summer. The Indian Wells title was very important for me personally. Thanks to that tournament, I began to feel better off the court as well, on the court it was already obvious. I feel joy every day with my team, with my close people.”

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Carlos Alcaraz smiles, it is his hallmark, but in the Californian desert he does it because he has played metal, for the first time so far in 2024. Carlitos is back and in Indian Wells, by winning the title again, he has experienced again, eight months later, what it feels like to be the champion of a tournament by overcoming (7-6 [5], 6-1) to the Russian Daniil Medvedev. Since last Wimbledon, Alcaraz did not know what it was like to lift a trophy. The finals drought, since he set foot in Cincinnati, had become alarming. Nor had 2024 started on such a good footing for him as to dispel doubts.

Neither the Australian Open nor Buenos Aires nor Rio, the latter event involving injury, had shed more light than shadows. “They have been difficult months for me. My confidence went down a bit. Not after Australia, but on the South American tour. After Buenos Aires I haven’t played tennis well. I have suffered in training almost every day. I have fought to try to keep my confidence as high as possible, trying to be myself every day”, he admitted himself “It has been a really difficult period after Wimbledon. I couldn’t find my style. My family, my team and the people close to me told me what was wrong with me, that I wasn’t smiling as much on the track anymore. It was difficult for me to enjoy the track. “I wasn’t myself,” he claimed.

Carlitos will begin preparing for the clay court tour when he digests this defeat, his fourth of the year. He does so with the good taste in his mouth of having retained the crown in Indian Wells and having rediscovered himself after a phase of doubts. Although with 160 points less in the ranking, because in Florida he was defending the 2023 semifinals. And if Sinner took the trophy on Sunday, he would take away the number two ranking. Miami, where he has felt like “a 13-year-old kid” in the hands of Dimitrov, is already in the past.

2024-03-30 05:00:00
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