the russian Aslan Karatsev He qualified for the Masters 1,000 semifinals for the first time by defeating the Chinese in Madrid Zhizhen Zhangsurprise of the tournament, by 7-6 (3) and 6-4, in a very tactical match, where the rivals dosed their attacks.
His next opponent will be the winner of the clash between the Greeks Stefanos Tsitsipas and the german Jan Lennard Struff.
In Caja Mágica in the Madrid neighborhood of San Fermín, in the Usera district, where the largest Chinese community in Spain lives (about 10,000 people), Zhang he finished the best tournament of his life and the best performance by a player of his nationality to date of this entity.
Karatsevwho came from the previous stage and 121 in the world, and Zhang, number 99 in the ranking, faced a unique opportunity for the two, to reach the semifinals of a Masters 1,000,
The Russian came back from 0-40 in the third game. It was then that he realized the danger of his rival, a good server, solid in the rally and with very deep shots. It was a bit windy on the Caja Mágica center court and the two struggled to adjust to the lines.
With three set victories and two tie-breaks in his last three matches, the tennis player from shanghai He accused the breakdown and from the beginning he surrendered the initiative to his rival.
Without taking too many risks, both held their serve until it led to a tiebreaker. Zhang took a 3-0 lead, but Karatsev launched an unstoppable comeback. He leveled and recovered the ‘minibreak’ with a well crossed backhand and with another he took his first set point. A double fault from Zhang closed the set (7-3).
This was Zhang’s eighth playoff appearance in Madrid and his second loss.
Neither of them are in the prime of their careers, with the Chinese 26 years old and the Russian 29, but with more baggage on the circuit Karatsev, who became number 14 in the ranking, his experience comes before the critical moments.
With a set in his backpack, and his opponent knocked down, the man from Vladikavkaz broke this time as soon as the second began. Zhang made a series of mistakes that he paid for with his excellent serve, but there was no option to recover what he had lost. He didn’t have a breaking point in the whole set.
Karatsev the win was certified by a blank serve game. This is the first time since 2002 that there will be a player from the previous stage in the semifinals of Madrid.
The Russian rang the bell in 2012 by reaching the semifinals of the Australian Open when he was ranked 114th on the ATP and left earlier, a similar path to the one he followed in Madrid.
Zhang, for his part, got four important victories from Madrid, against the Austrian Jurij Rodionov (119 ATP), the Canadian Denis Shapovalov (27), the British Cameron Norrie (13) and the American Taylor Fritz (10).
Source: La Verdad
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