Carlos Alcaraz had a really bad time in the round of 16 of the Masters 1000 in Madrid. The Spaniard first wasted four match points at 5-3, then prevailed in the tiebreak of the third in the rematch of last year’s final against Jan-Lennard Struff: it ends 6-3, 6-7(5), 7-6 (4) in two hours and fifty-two minutes of play. An Alcaraz certainly not concrete, with a tennis expressed decidedly in flashes in the match, but in the end he is in the quarterfinals where he will face Andrey Rublev.
The match is as predictable immediately spectacular and full of good shots: Struff’s constant aggression contrasted with Alcaraz’s explosiveness and super defense. The games are fought straight away: the Spaniard has a break point that is not exploited in the second game and the German has three chances in the next game and may have regrets especially on the second, in which he had hit a great backhand return that would have been a winner , but she barely made it out. The break for Alcaraz arrives at 3-2, taking advantage of the few first shots from Struff. A break that the Spaniard kept until the end of the set, won 6-3.
Struff makes too many mistakes at the beginning of the second set, he is unable to obtain direct points with the serve and when he enters the exchange he has great difficulty: the break arrives immediately for the Murcian who immediately flies to 2-0 after a few minutes. The Teutonic does not give up and with one fantastic response takes the late break. We reach the hot phases of the set: Struff goes down 0-30 in the eleventh game with two forehand errors, but comes back in a big way with courage, coming down to the net and serving well. At the tiebreak Alcaraz loses five points in a row from 3-1 to 3-6, making too many mistakes and looking for too many subtleties, the German finishes with an ace at 6-5 in the center pinching the line and bring everything to the third.
In the third is again Alcaraz who finds the break first in the fourth game: Struff first cancels the break point with a great serve, but then makes a mistake with the forehand and delivers himself with a decidedly reckless serve and volley. The Spaniard goes ahead 4-1 0-30, but doesn’t materialize the opportunities and finds himself having to cancel a break point at 4-2, but saves himself with the first serve. In the ninth game Alcaraz goes 40-0, doesn’t close and doesn’t even take advantage of the fourth match point, missing two incredible forehands, committing a double fault and effectively giving Struff an unexpected counter-break. The Murcian complicates his life again, at 5-5 he has to cancel a break point, but again saves himself with the serve. We reach the tiebreak and Alcaraz immediately goes ahead 3-0 with two mini-breaks: a nice running passer and a deep response. But the match doesn’t end there: the Iberian lost four points in a row by missing a forehand in the open field and a passer from mid-court. Then Struff feels the moment a little, he misses two serves and volleys and hands himself over to Alcaraz.
