MADRID, 4 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz defeated the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3, 7-6(3) and 6-4 this Tuesday in the quarterfinals of the Roland Garros tournament, the second ‘Grand Slam’ of the season and which will be dispute on clay, and with this he has met in the semifinals with the Italian Jannik Sinner, new No. 1 in the ATP world ranking.
For the night shift on the Philippe Chatrier Track, Alcaraz started off very excited. He broke his rival’s first serve, consolidated it to a blank (2-0) and maintained the distance on the scoreboard without a hint of suffering on serve (3-1, 4-2, 5-3). He then broke Tsitsipas again in the ninth game and tied the first set in just half an hour.
The Greek was groggy, unable to respond to the catalog in front of him, and soon found himself 3-0 down in the second set. Apostolos Tsitsipas, Stefanos’ father and coach, regularly clashed with his son giving orders. Despite this, the Athens player showed good manners with his ‘drive’ and revived in the seventh game.
Although Alcaraz saved the 15-40 with a great blow, the last of an exchange of 21 – the longest of the duel up to that moment -, he sent a racket away with 30-40 and saw the break consummate (4-3). His opponent had regained her vigor, even saving a 30-40 deficit in the immediately following game.
With the forces equal, this second set was decided in sudden death, where the Spaniard accelerated (5-1) with quality crossed forehands, well celebrated with his fist raised and exasperating Tsitsipas who complained bitterly to the judge of chair, due to a noise he had heard from the stands at a vital point.
The El Palmar player continued to be more focused and finally, without any scares, he secured the tie-break 7-3 after a drop shot that Tsitsipas crashed into the net. At the beginning of the third set, the Greek repeated the discussions with his father from quite a distance, which led to the chair umpire giving him a ‘warning’ for ‘coaching’.
The score at that moment was 1-2 in favor of Tsitsipas and 30-0 with Alcaraz serving. The battle was not over, far from it, but the Athenian found it difficult to focus on his objectives. In the seventh game, the player from Murcia broke his rival’s serve at the first opportunity he had (4-3) and took the run until he won the set, and the victory.
At a rate of two and a quarter hours, after the public made the wave, Alcaraz saw Tsitsipas waste a 0-30 by throwing away three returns in a row. And in the first opportunity to seal the victory, the one from El Palmar executed one of his own that hit the front kick box. Alcaraz will thus repeat his presence in the semis.