Not even one bee “invasion” on center court at Indian Wellswhich forced the match to be suspended for almost two hours, not one of its most feared ogres on the circuit stopped this Thursday Carlos Alcarazwho defeated the German Alexander Zverev 6-3 and 6-1 in one hour and 29 minutes and will face the Italian Jannik Sinner in the semifinals.
Major challenges are accumulating for the Spaniard in his defense of the title of the first Masters 1,000 of the year, since Zverev is the player who has beaten him the most times (5-4 now for the German) and the transalpine also has the face to face. face between both in favor (4-3), has won the Australian Open and Rotterdam this year and accumulates an impressive 19-0 in his last 19 matches in the ATP (undefeated in 2024 plus three from the last Davis Cup).
But the one from El Palmar does not understand impossible challenges: his obsession is to win and continue winning, even if hundreds of bees take over the center court of Indian Wells in an absolutely surreal moment in the Californian desert tournament. Only 9 minutes of the match had been played (1-1, 15-0 for Alcaraz) when the chair umpire ordered the duel to stop on the center court of the Californian desert tournament because of that “invasion of bees” – in his words -made it impossible to play.
Alcaraz, who had most of the bees on his part of the court, suffered a sting without major consequences and both tennis players ran to the locker room. The origin of the problem was a ‘spidercam’, a high-altitude camera that moves suspended by cables and where hundreds of these flying insects had been installed.. The organization raised the camera as high as possible to try to keep the bees away from the track.
Then the unexpected but radiant savior of the day came into action: a beekeeper who, armed with a vacuum cleaner and surprisingly without any type of protection on his face or hands beyond sunglasses, was in charge of removing the bees from that camera. Later he went down to the court with a spray and was received with applause from the fans and with smiles from the tennis players who were back on the court and taking everything with humor. The beekeeper enjoyed his moment of glory: he took some selfies with fans, smiled at a television camera and also spoke with Alcaraz and Zverev next to the net to explain the situation.
Alcaraz, during the warm-up, showed his objections to the organization as he said that he was more “concentrated” on making sure there were no bees than on hitting the ball. But an hour and 48 minutes of break later, tennis returned to the center court despite the fact that the Murcian continued to find some loose bees among his clothes and objects (“I don’t trust one thing,” he told an Indian Wells worker when he saw a bee in a trash can).
Zverev, new victim of Alcaraz’s revenge
In the second round he had already taken revenge on the Hungarian Fábián Marozsán (n.58), who defeated him in the Masters 1,000 in Rome last year, and this time Alcaraz (n.2) settled outstanding bills with Zverev (n.6). The German giant (1.98 tall) eliminated him in the quarterfinals of the last Australian Open, but on this occasion Alcaraz was completely superior from start to finish.
After two magnificent displays against the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime (n.31) and Marozsán, Alcaraz once again offered a heavenly level and was not affected at all by the interruption by the bees. With 2-1 in his favor, Alcaraz had his first break opportunity. “Make the point long, I want it long,” his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero asked him. There was no need: Zverev got stuck with a double fault and Alcaraz took the lead (3-1).
The Spaniard dominated the first set with nerves of steel, with an impeccable game from the back of the court, with a bomb-proof serve and moving his rival perfectly with those drop shot and lob combinations that are already a trademark of the house. Faced with the impressive authority of Alcaraz, Zverev seemed very cold, without any type of rhythm and totally unplugged. There was a small moment of danger for Alcaraz with 4-2 and 0-30 down, but he solved it with great ease: a couple of climbs to the net, a right cross and one more acceleration to close the set in 52 minutes.
Alcaraz was not satisfied with his level in the first round and continued to grow and grow in the second chapter. Two consecutive breaks (4-0) were achieved against a crestfallen and helpless Zverev. before the quality, power and variety of blows that rained down on him from the other side of the net. Alcaraz closed his master class quickly and with another break and is already thinking about Sinner (n.3), one of his great rivals on the circuit and with whom he has had memorable duels such as the quarterfinals of the US Open in 2022 that lasted more than five hours and ended almost three in the morning.
Alcaraz defeated Sinner, who is currently number two in the world ranking, in the semifinals of the last edition of Indian Wells, but the Italian won the last two matches between them in Miami and Beijing. Before facing Sinner, Alcaraz already achieved another milestone this Thursday: reaching at least the semifinals of a tournament whenever he defends a title.
2024-03-15 01:59:31
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