A defeat for Carlos Alcaraz is always a surprise, but in this case it is perhaps a little less so. Meanwhile, his opponent, Jack Draper, who beat the Spaniard in two sets in the round of 16 at Queen’s 7-6 (3) 6-3, is today perhaps the fittest player ever on grass (on Sunday he won the tournament of Stuttgart). Furthermore, by the world number two’s own admission (but who from Monday will leave the number 2 position to Djokovic, dropping to 3, due to the points lost in this tournament, won in 2023) the preparation for Queen’s was not, let’s say so, perfect, physically and mentally. The fact is that Alcaraz’s unbeaten run on grass stops at 13 matches (he hadn’t lost since the round of 16 in 2022 at Wimbledon against Sinner) and an alarm bell probably went off in London for the reigning champion of the Championships.
alcaraz eliminated
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Honor and credit to Draper, 22 years old, a player who has always had a great arm but between injuries and discontinuities has never managed to make the definitive leap in quality. Perhaps the time has come, because Great Britain is looking for a new, true heir to Andy Murray and he, English, would be much appreciated by his Majesty’s subjects. Draper is a player who becomes spectacular when he’s on his day, with that left foot that sometimes makes you want to make even risky comparisons, but the boy certainly has class. And it’s not easy, after all, to send someone like Alcaraz into a tailspin, even if he’s not in great shape and fresh from celebrating his third slam: the Spaniard only had one break point in the whole match, which was promptly cancelled. The turning point was the tie break of the first set, played very well and very badly by Alcaraz, then in the second set the decisive break at 3-2, with the Englishman who decisively closed the match on his own serve at 5-3, after the previous game had seen three match points canceled by Alcaraz. Later in the afternoon Musetti will be on court against Brandon Nakashima.
