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World number 1 tennis player Carlos Alcaraz is in the final of the Australian Open after beating number 3 Alexander Zverev in the fifth set, with a score of 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (3-7), 6-7 (4-7), 7-5. The Australian Open is a Grand Slam tournament, that is, one of the most important in tennis.
It was a very long match (5 hours and 27 minutes), uncertain and spectacular, in which many things happened. Alcaraz, 22 years old, started it dominating, as often happens when the opponent is not Jannik Sinner. In the third set and part of the fourth, however, he lowered his level of play, due to cramps and perhaps a physical problem in the upper part of his right leg (it wasn’t clear). Zverev managed to take advantage of it and take the match to the fifth set, the most exciting of all.
In the first set Alcaraz was as dominant as in the rest of the tournament, as before this match he had won all 15 sets he had played. In the second, things became more balanced: at one point Zverev even led 5-2. Alcaraz, however, was not impressed, he recovered the set and won it in the tie-break (the play-off which is played at 6-6).
In the third set, which could have been decisive for Alcaraz, the match changed. At 3-3 the Spaniard requested the intervention of a physiotherapist for a leg problem: it was not yet clear whether they were just cramps, or whether there was also muscle discomfort.
The physiotherapist’s intervention for Carlos Alcaraz’s physical problems (James D. Morgan/Getty Images)
For over half an hour the Spaniard moved with great difficulty, still managing to take both the third and fourth sets to a tie-break, also thanks to some exceptional winning shots thrown almost without moving. Zverev, despite struggling to take advantage of his opponent’s physical problems, won both tie-breaks, and the fifth set was reached.
At this point Alcaraz seemed to have almost completely recovered physically, but Zverev had meanwhile gained confidence and started to play very well: he immediately broke in the first game of the fifth set, that is, he won it on his opponent’s serve. From that moment on the match was hard fought and spectacular. Alcaraz had several opportunities to break (in the fourth, sixth and eighth game), but Zverev always managed to hold serve and hold the lead until 5-4, when he served to win the match.
At that point, however, Alcaraz finally managed to break, equalizing at 5-5: like other times in the past, Zverev couldn’t handle the pressure, while Alcaraz gave his best in the decisive moment of a match. In the following service game, Zverev again committed some banal errors, while Alcaraz played great and with an exceptional passer he closed the fifth set at 7-5, winning the match after almost 5 and a half hours of play.
In the final on Sunday morning, Alcaraz will face the winner of the semi-final between Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic, scheduled for Friday morning in Italy. For the Spaniard it will be the first final at the Australian Open, the only one of the four Grand Slam tournaments that he has not yet won (he has won the other three twice each). Should Sinner get there, it would be the fourth consecutive Slam final between the two. Zverev was a finalist at last year’s Australian Open but has never won a Grand Slam tournament.
