[11] G. Dimitrov b. [1] C. Alcaraz 6-2 6-4
“It made me feel like a 13 year old”, said Carlos Alcaraz as soon as he left the field after suffering perhaps one of the most unexpected defeats of his young career. A Grigor Dimitrov in great form, perhaps at the level of the one who won the ATP Finals in 2017, spanked the winner of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells for an hour and 33 minutes preventing him from continuing his chase at the Sunshine Double e giving Jannik Sinner the chance to return from this North American trip with the no. 2 in the ranking in your pocket. In fact, if the Italian were to secure the tournament he would overtake Carlos Alcaraz in next Monday’s rankings, settling in second place, which would naturally be his personal best and the record for Italian tennis, both men and women.
With an aggressive match conduct and without any flexions whatsoever he traumatized Alcaraz right from the first games, forcing him to repeat to his corner “I don’t know what to do”. Especially in response, Dimitrov was truly superlative, attacking Alcaraz’s first and second balls with splendid backhands of “Rogerian” memory, and always going around the ball with his forehand to charge forward in his service games.
In the semifinals Dimitrov will face Alexander Zverevagainst whom he only won the first of their eight official matches, way back in 2014 in Basel when the German was still seventeen.
THE MATCH – Ready-go, and Alcaraz suffered a break point in the opening game, but missed with a backhand down the line that went just wide. Dimitrov also presents his calling card with a backhand winner in response that brings the 2-0 break.
The audience of the evening session begins to participate in the show, enjoying the warmer temperatures of the evening after a rather hot day. Dimitrov is still in trouble on his serve, but comes out brilliantly from 15-40, not without some help from Carlitos. A third break point is canceled out by a magnificent forehand cross and two more points late the scoreboard at the Hard Rock Stadium reads 3-0 for the Bulgarian.
Alcaraz is having less and less fun, tries to change the length of the shots but Dimitrov counters wonderfully, there are two balls of 4-0 for the Bulgarian, but Carlitos says no with a splendid passer, and after just half an hour of play the no. 2 in the world manages to put his first game on the scoresheet.
Dimitrov doesn’t let gocontinues to move the opponent from the baseline to create openings to follow at the net and keeps his serves as the match becomes more and more physical.
The second break that Alcaraz had averted in the fourth game came shortly after, and Dimitrov scored a 6-2 in 48 minutes with a backhand long line winner.
In the second set the music doesn’t change: Grigor uses the right patterns to shorten the rallies and manages his service shifts wonderfully. Alcaraz insteadis more and more confused, tries some serve and volley, but without too much conviction, and at 1-2 he combines the patatrac: an initial double fault and another winning forehand by Dimitrov create the break that launches the 4-1.
The Hard Rock Stadium seems almost more stunned than Alcaraz, and when the Spaniard’s next innings opens with yet another backhand winner for Grigor, the spectators in the upper stands organize a chorus of support for their favorite.
Dimitrov lacks a response on the 5-1 ballAlcaraz finds himself just enough to keep the serve and then triggers the “beast mode” to try the comeback. Three forehand shots bring him 0-40an error by Grigor gives him the counter break and in no time the score reads 4-4.
But that level of forcing isn’t sustainable for long periods, and Carlitos has to take his foot off the gas just enough to allow Dimitrov to hold serve and respond for the match at 5-4. The first point is another winning backhand return, one of those that Federer’s latest version used against Nadal; another forehand winner leads to 0-30, and a minute later we reach two match points. The first one is enough, because when Alcaraz’s crosscourt right ends up in the corridor Dimitrov’s arms are raised to the Florida sky to celebrate the most unexpected of the semi-finals at the Miami Open.
