MADRID, 4 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz said goodbye this Friday to his career in the Paris-Bercy tournament, the last Masters 1,000 of the season, after having to withdraw from his quarterfinal match against the Danish Holger Rune when he sought to force the third set in the ‘tie-break’.
The number one in the world noticed some discomfort in the left side of his body and requested the input of the physio with 6-5 on the scoreboard in the second set. After being treated, he lost the next game and although he tried to play the tiebreaker, he preferred to withdraw due to difficulties in serving and hitting.
In this way, the US Open champion could not advance further in the tournament and could not certify his number one status until the end of the season. He needed to win the title and now he will have to try to secure it at the ATP Finals in Turin (Italy).
But before his retirement, Alcaraz had already had a very complicated duel with a Rune, almost a week older than him and with whom he rivaled before becoming professionals. The two even jumped dressed in the same shirt for a match where Juan Carlos Ferrero’s pupil was not at his best level with only 15 winners, compared to 28 for the Dane.
The first favorite was very uncomfortable from the start, especially in the first part where he could not offer his best level, too erratic and dominated by a Rune, who showed that he reaches this final stretch at a good level after reaching the final in Basel ( Switzerland), where he lost to another toned like the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, and after having already left the Swiss Stan Wawrinka, the Polish Hubert Hurkacz and the Russian Andrey Rublev out of the tournament.
The Murcian could not impose his game and could not have control from the bottom against a rival who hardly offered him any loopholes with the service. The one from El Palmar only won six points from the rest and did not have any break points in the first set, which prevented him from recovering the ‘break’ that he conceded in the sixth game and which was key.
In any case, the number one in the world did not lose focus and gradually recovered his best tennis, thanks in large part to the improvement with his first serve, with which he avoided big scares on serve despite having to face a ball from break in the first game.
However, Rune did not loosen up too much until the final stages when he offered his first concessions with the serve, with two break points at 4-3 that the Spanish could not take advantage of. The equality was maintained, but the physicist took its toll on the Murcian who decided not to prolong the pain and a possible injury in the ‘sudden death’.