Alcaraz against Tsitsipas: act six. A year after the historyless match in the quarter-finals at Roland Garros, the Spaniard and the Greek find themselves against each other in the same round and on the same court. Number 3 in the world he left just seven games to Felix Auger-Aliassimedefeating the Canadian 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 in just over two and a quarter hours of play.
The story of the match
The finalist from Madrid had the best start, who immediately went ahead by a break thanks to an excellent backhand down the line on the counterattack. Alcaraz, however, immediately closed the gap, with the Canadian who, on the contrary, was betrayed by his backhand on the ball for the counterbreak. The balance was broken again in the eighth gamein which the Spaniard played very aggressive tennis to go ahead 5-3 and close the set at the first useful set point.
In addition to the difficulty of having to manage an increasingly confident Carlitos, in the second set Auger-Aliassime began to suffer a groin discomfort, fatal for the break suffered by the Canadian in the fifth game, immediately before asking for a medical timeout to try to grit his teeth. At 3-2, the ATP number 21 was 40-0 in response, but Alcaraz saved himself thanks to his serve and a super volley on the third break chance, then breaking serve again from the Canadian at 5-3.
Increasingly limited in travel, Auger-Aliassime was no longer able to stop the bleeding of lost games, while Alcaraz was clear in understanding the situation on the court: in the third set the Spaniard immediately took a 5-0 lead, then closed the match 6-1 at first useful match point. So the appointment is on Tuesday at the Philippe Chatrier: Tsitsipas will try to overturn a head-to-head match in which he is clearly at a disadvantage: of five matches, three of which on clay, the Greek has barely won two sets.
