BARCELONA, 21 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz beat the also Spanish Alejandro Davidovich (7-6 and 6-4) this Friday in the quarterfinals of the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell-70 Conde de Godó Trophy, in a tough and even battle that the Murcian took to continue defending his crown on the clay of Barcelona.
A pulse of 2:10 hours that was matched, which could have gone perfectly into three sets and in which Alcaraz had to sweat even more than with respect to the round of 16 duel against Roberto Bautista. But, as before the one from Castellón, the Murcian player -number 1 in the tournament- won the battle and the game.
This unprecedented duel had everything, and it already began with a service break in favor of Carlos Alcaraz. The man from El Palmar commented that they had done many training sets with the man from Malaga, but in the first official duel, on a packed Rafa Nadal court, Alcaraz prevailed despite having, perhaps, more errors than desired.
That initial break from Alcaraz was not answered by Davidovich until the sixth game (3-3). An equality that was reached with a hoot from Malaga, with a setback parallel to the rest. But, as against Bautista, the Murcian made a ‘counterbreak’ like lightning and signed a blank service to go up 5-3.
It seemed that the first set was on track for Alcaraz, but Davidovich held his serve and broke that of the reigning tournament champion to put up an exciting 5-5 lead that led to a ‘tie break’. Not before having Davidovich 0-30 up to be able to close the set in his favor.
He did not, and in the tiebreak there was a lot of volleying, going up to the net and drop shots, with several small service breaks, which Alcaraz dominated 7-5 to put the same result in the first set, in his favor. A ‘tie break’ that ended with two errors by Davidovich, the last one throwing a free ball outside.
In the second set, the script was similar. The man from Malaga lacked precision at key moments. And he ended up desperate. After a service point for each one, on Carlos Alcaraz’s second serve he had up to 6 Davidovich break balls to take advantage, but he wasted them.
And, the next game, Alcaraz made a ‘break’ to Davidovich to get 3-1 up, despite the fact that the man from Malaga managed to save the first three break balls that the Murcian had. But Davidovich was not willing to sell his skin cheap, and he returned the play with a very celebrated break, after a left ball in the net that made the ball ‘come home’.
In the following 4 serves there were no breaks. With 5-4 for Alcaraz, and Davidovich trying to avoid his rival’s victory, the Murcian was up 15-40 and, after not taking advantage of the first match point, he did take advantage of the second. Davidovich sent a ball into the net and had to lower his arms completely, and watch ‘Carlitos’ celebrate his pass to the semifinals.