This round of 16 was the remake of last year’s final which saw Carlos Alcaraz win in three sets against Jan-Lennard Struff (34), in good form at the moment on ocher since he won the ATP 250 in Munich ten days ago against Taylor Fritz. The Spaniard, injured in his right arm, had not played on clay before arriving in Madrid.
The first set was quietly completed by the world number 3 who never gave the impression of forcing, confirming his break in the seventh game to take the lead after 46 minutes (6-3), varying the effects and the speeds which gave Struff is dizzy.
As the sun flooded the Manolo Santana court, he made another break at the start of the second set which the German giant (1.93 m) immediately filled with a reflex return of service (2-2). The two men did not let go until the tie-break, Struff standing out until then, once again, with a series of dazzling returns which left the Spaniard on the spot.
Alcaraz pushed to third set
Struff broke away at 5-3 on a well-hit cushioned backhand volley and in the process offered himself three equalizing balls at one set everywhere, saved by the Spaniard. At 6-5, an ace from the German on the “T”, validated by the hawk-eye, gave him the second set after 58 minutes.
In the third set, the question was whether Struff would keep up the pace by maintaining in particular his quality of return of service, costly in flow. The first game was won – blank – by Alcaraz who scared his supporters by playing a little too much cat and mouse (drop shots, sheared forehands), as if intoxicated by his own playful genius.
A wooden forehand from the German offered a break point converted by Alcaraz on a foul from his opponent on the volley to lead 3-1. Break confirmed on an uncrossed backhand volley from Alcaraz placed in the corner of the court to lead 4-1, greeted by an ola from the public, in which the Spaniard participated with a smile on his face.
Five match points needed
This last round really offered very high level tennis, Alcaraz’s bluff shots competing with the German’s percussion on serve (10 aces in the match) in a bullfight atmosphere. At 5-3, the Murcian offered himself four match points which he was unable to convert, even letting his opponent break him to return to 4-5 then 5-5 on his serve.
A second ola started at 6-5 for the Spanish champion with the footballer Raul, standing to applaud his young compatriot, but the German threw mines concluded with titanic smashes.
The game was going to be played once again in the tie-break where Alcaraz asked for the support of the public and came away 3-0 with two services to follow but he collected his mini-break, letting Struff come back to the level. The crazy shots (37 winning shots for Alcaraz in the end, 31 for his opponent) followed one another, notably a winning lob on serve-volley from Struff, giving Alcaraz a fifth match point. It would be the right one, the Spaniard swinging a forehand mine into the feet of his opponent mounted on his serve.
In the quarter-finals, the double defending champion will face No. 7 seed Andrey Rublev, winner of Tallon Griekspoor (6-2, 6-4) in the round of 16.
2024-04-30 17:04:08
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