MADRID, 13 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz fell this Monday against the German Alexander Zverev (6-7(3), 6-3, 6-4) in his debut in the ATP Finals, which are being held in Turin (Italy), a result which forces the Murcian, still physically limping, to win the next two games if he wants to be in the semifinals.
The one from El Palmar, who suffers from plantar fasciitis in his left foot, never felt comfortable on the Italian court, where the eight best rackets in the world meet.
At the Pala Alpitour in the transalpine city, the Murcian overcame Zverev’s break in the third game and restored balance to the contest with a break in the sixth. Subsequently, he defended himself from four break balls against him and even had it in his power to close the match with 6-5, but he missed all three chances to do so.
Thus, the German, current world number eight and two-time winner of the competition (2018 and 2021), won his serve in the thirteenth game and forced the tie-break, in which equality was the dominant trend; With two mini-breaks, the Spaniard took the partial.
Alcaraz opened the second set to the rest and was not able to take advantage of the break opportunity he had in the opening game, something that Zverev did achieve on his first chance to the rest. In the rest of the set, both tennis players defended their serves and the clash had to be resolved in the third and final set.
In it, the number two in the world gave up his serve again in the fifth game, decisive for his opponent to put an end to the fight after two hours and 31 minutes of play to begin commanding the ‘Masters Cup’.
With this, Zverev puts the balance in the circuit in his favor with the Murcian (4-3), who must win his other two matches in the Red Group against the Russians Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev to have a chance of reaching the semifinals.