Carlos Alcaraz continued his steady pace at the Shanghai Masters 1000. The Murcian had to bring out his best tennis to see off Daniel Evans (7-6, 6-4) on Monday in a very long match that served to get more rhythm in the competition for what was to come.
And the next one is Grigor Dimitrov. The Bulgarian will be her opponent in the round of 16 this Wednesday after defeating Karen Khachanov in a great match in which she remembered the great player.
This is a rival, in principle, affordable for the Spaniard, who comfortably won the three previous matches.last year in Paris-Bercy (6-1, 6-3) and this year in Madrid (6-2, 7-5) and Queen’s (6-4, 6-4).
Despite everything, Alcaraz is cautious about a rival he considers “very talented.” “I will try to stay focused at all times and not let him dominate the game. He’s comfortable if the game goes, so I’ll try to put pressure on him” he commented on Monday after defeating Evans.
Regarding the fight with Evans, Alcaraz said that “The key is being there with a strong mind. I had many opportunities, which I hardly took advantage of. The easy thing there is to go down a little bit (…), and the key is to wait for opportunities, to know that I will have more,” said the world tennis number two.
Asked about the problem put to him by Evans – who he has faced three times, all of them with success for the Spaniard -, Alcaraz said: “He became more aggressive than in other games. This is one of the hardest games I’ve played this year“.
In particular, referring to his last victory against the Englishman (at the US Open in September), he said that the conditions in Shanghai were “different.” “It was slower than the US Open, I had to adapt my game a little bit” he explained.
Source: La Verdad
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