The day came. Carlos Alcaraz makes his debut this Saturday at the Miami Openthe second Masters 1000 of the season. They will face another Spaniard, Roberto Carballéswho on Thursday beat Australian Aleksandar Vukic (n.65) 7-6(2) and 6-3 in the first round, in what will be his first hurdle on the road to the ‘Sunshine Double’, won Indian Wells and consecutive Miami.
The match is scheduled for this Saturday in the first shift of the afternoon session, apparently not before 00:00 Spanish peninsular time.
However, dark clouds hang over that game, and we’re not speaking metaphorically. After a Friday marked by rain that forced the cancellation of most of the program, The weather forecast for this Saturday is not very promising.
Everything indicates that storms will return to Miami, especially in the first half of the daywhich will greatly delay the start of the day and compromise the fights in the final rounds, among which is Alcaraz-Carballés, to They can be postponed until Sunday.
Also at that time the Martín Landaluce duel should be playedwho made history on Thursday by becoming the first player born in 2006 to win a match at a Masters 1000, against another of the great sensations of the new generation of world tennis, Ben Shelton.
Alcaraz starts as the favorite in Miami, and not just because of his recent victory in Indian Wells. The world number 2, with 13 ATP crowns in 17 matches for a title, He is the ‘king’ of the finals of major tournaments with a success rate of 76.47%ahead of legends like Pete Sampras (72.72%), Rod Laver, who also has 72.72%, and Novak Djokovic (71.01%).
The student of Juan Carlos Ferrero, who has not been a champion since his Wimbledon win in 2023, has already accumulated 13 ATP titles. The only circuit finals where Alcaraz lost were in Umag in 2022, the ATP 500 in Hamburg that same year and the Rio and the Masters 1,000 in Cincinnati in 2023.
Computing Grand Slam and Masters 1,000 tournaments, His background is seven finals won in eight playedAnd only one in Cincinnati last year escaped him.
Alcaraz’s 13 titles are a far cry from the 109 won by American Jimmy Connors, the player with the most trophies on the circuit, in the 164 finals he played between 1973 and 1988, with a 66.46% success rate for the player. Illinois, who is now 71 years old.
Sampras won 64 titles in 88 finals and Laver, 72 in 99. The average for both is the same, 72.72%.
Bjorn Borg, with 66 wins in 93 finals, has 70.96%, and Rafa Nadal, with 92 in 130, 70.76%.
Alcaraz averaged them all after his victory in the United Statesa country where he has already accumulated four titles, the same as in Spain.
There is only one other tennis player who has surpassed Palmareño’s success percentage in the finals. It is the Austrian Thomas Musterwho won 44 titles in 55 finals, 80%, although most of his victories on the circuit came in tournaments in the category ATP 500 and, above all, ATP 250 (26).
Muster, who was number one in February 1996, has won just one Grand Slam, at Roland Garros in 1995. He is also the winner of eight Masters 1,000s.
Source: La Verdad
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