The German breaks the Spaniard’s streak of 14 wins, who remains at the gates of the semi-finals in a match with more than 50 unforced errors
Carlos Alcaraz’s adventure ended cruelly at Roland Garros. In a match marred by a carousel of casual errors. A very high figure for the Spaniard, who added more than 50 to fall to Alexander Zverev, 6-4, 6-4, 4-6 and 7-6 (7), and on the brink of his first semi-final in to stay in Paris and put on a Grand Slam. The Murcian picked a bad day to play one of his worst games of the year. He asked to play during the day and they allowed it, but under the Paris sun he grabbed, shrinking for a much more complete Zverev than in Madrid, hanging a backpack full of mistakes. He made 16 in the first set, 16 in the second, 12 in the third and 12 in the fourth. Too many to get chances with a player like Zverev, who is not the king of consistency, but who has had the best results of his career -along with the Masters Cup- on clay, where he has won three Masters 1,000.
The German was no longer the tired and devastated boy from Madrid, arriving with barely hours of sleep. Much more rested and whole, he played two near-perfect sets to show the game for sentencing. A double 6-4 that put Alcaraz on the brink of collapse. It put him in a much worse position than against Albert Ramos, when he had to save a match point, but without the need to clear a 2-0 deficit.
Never in his career has Alcaraz tracked a score like this. Only three times has he been seen against two sets – this was the fourth – and he has never been able to take the win. Hope was given, from the deep, by dodging a ‘break’ ball at 4-4 in the third which was practically a match for the German, and he took the set into the next game, but he was still a long way off . Only a timely disengagement from Zverev kept him on the fine line that separates tennis from defeat.
In the fourth set Alcaraz continued to go against the grain, resisting, but always with the feeling of survival, not enjoying it. Never letting go of his nerves, Zverev served the game 6-4, but allowed the Murcian to return to the game and force a tiebreak.
The Spaniard had the ball to take the game to fifth, having won it with a fantastic backhand down the line. However, the Murcian crashed into the net the next point. A missed opportunity that was definitive. Zverev gave up no more chances and took the win, reaching his second consecutive semifinal at Roland Garros. The Hamburg tennis player already has five Grand Slam semifinals and was waiting for his second final -after the US Open in 2020- against Novak Djokovic or Rafa Nadal.
Alcaraz, who stops for the second time in his career in the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam, such as in the US Open 2021, is left without finishing first in the Race to Turin and, pending other results, remains sixth in the world ranking.
Source: La Verdad
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