The Cincinnati Masters 1000 faces its final stage, and it does so with Carlos Alcaraz as a clear candidate for the title. The Murcian does not live a quiet week but he manages to carry out very complicated games based on courage and trade.
After losing, always in three sets, Jordan Thompson, Tommy Paul and Max Purcell, This Saturday he will face another tough guy to break in the semifinals: Hubert Hurkacz.
The Pole, a great server, is a very dangerous player on a hard court, as his four victims this week have already seen: Thanasi Kokkinakis, Borna Coric, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexei Popyrin.
Alcaraz and Hurkacz They have met twice, and both times victory fell to the world number 1’s side. In fact, the last rivalry took place just a week ago in Toronto, where the Pole held the game.
“With Hurkacz, even though I won, it was 7-6 in the third, so I could have lost perfectly, so I’ll try to pick up the things I didn’t do well in Toronto and try to win again.Carlos explained after his quarterfinal match against Purcell.
And it is, in fact, the duels between the two have been very equal, so much for that four of the five sets played were decided by tiebreaks. In the semifinals of Miami in 2022, Alcaraz got the win 7-6(5), 7-6(2), while last week in Toronto, this time in the quarterfinals, the Spaniard won 3-6, 7- 6(2) , 7-6(3).
Despite the tie, Alcaraz started as favorite in the a match that will start no earlier than 9:00 pm Spanish peninsular timeafter the two semifinals of the women’s team (Swiatek-Gauff and Sabalenka-Muchova).
And not only because of his number 1 status, but because Carlos Alcaraz is becoming a real specialist in the final rounds of tournaments, as shown by the fact that this year they won seven of the nine semifinals they played, winning the title six times.
It was at the Grand Slam at Wimbledon, the Masters 1,000 at Indian Wells and Madridthe ATP 500 of Barcelona and Queen’s and the 250 of Buenos Aires-, while he fell in the 500 of Rio de Janeiro.
The man from El Palmar was knocked out in the penultimate round of the Grand Slam at Roland Garros and the Masters 1,000 in Miami.
Juan Carlos Ferrero’s student He was just eliminated this season before the semifinals at the Masters 1,000 in Rome and Toronto.
Last year, when he was already the best on the circuit, he played 17 ATP tournaments, of which he won five, was a finalist in two and a semifinalist in many others, while in the remaining eight he did not participate. the four candidates to lift the trophy
Source: La Verdad
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