MADRID, 11 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz won this Friday morning by a tight 3-6, 7-6(2) and 7-6(3) against the Polish Hubert Hurkacz and qualified for the quarterfinals in the tournament in Toronto (Canada). , sixth ATP Masters 1000 of the season and that is played on hard courts.
Alcaraz, who can extend his distance in the leadership of the ATP ranking if he takes advantage of the absence of the Serbian Novak Djokovic in this tournament, lived another game of gnawing and gnawing. If the day before he had to slow down the momentum of the American Ben Shelton, on this occasion his Polish adversary also demanded patience.
The opening set was proof of this, with Hurkacz breaking the rival’s first service turn and immediately consolidating the lead (0-3). Although Alcaraz had two ‘break’ options in the fifth game, the Wroclavian reacted with class and saved both (1-4). With no problems on his next serves, Hurkacz scored the set in 32 minutes.
Notably uncomfortable on the pitch at Sobeys Stadium, the Murcian even gave up the first game of the second round. But he did not set off the alarms, he returned the ‘break’ right after and improved in his subsequent rounds with the service. That was also reflected to the rest, because in the sixth game he had a 15-40 that he did not take advantage of.
From then on, despite the intensity in the rallies, neither of the two contenders slackened more and the set had to be decided in sudden death, where Alcaraz went ahead 2-1 and accelerated his offensive deployment until tying the score at 7 -2. Hurkacz tried not to let that take its toll, although the calm at the start of the third set did not last long.
Hurkacz dies and rises to scare
The Pole scored the first game with his service, but lost the next one to white and conceded a break in the third (2-1). Out of fresh mind and unable to bother his opponent with his drive, Hurkacz’s loss to the current world number 1 seemed inevitable; even more so when there was another ‘break’ from the Palmareño, in the seventh game.
With 30-40 in his favor, Alcaraz ran from the left to the right side of the court to hit a nice through ball, crossed and from far behind, while his opponent was in full swing at the net. Despite already having everything up his sleeve (5-2), the Spaniard wasted two match balls and suffered a break, giving excitement to a battle that got tangled up.
Hurkacz came back to life, making it 5-4, then breaking to white (5-5) and being solid in the eleventh game (5-6) to ensure at least another tie-break. It was then that the man from El Palmar brought out his best tricks, making it 6-6 and delighting the crowd with a formidable lob to move up 3-1 in the second sudden death of the match.
Once the scares were over, after 2 hours and 36 minutes, Alcaraz sealed the victory in that final set (7-3). Thanks to this, he got a ticket for the quarterfinals, where he will face off with the winner of the duel between the American Tommy Paul and his compatriot Marcos Giron.