MADRID, 13 Apr. (SportsFinding) –
The Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz saw his great moment slow down in his debut this Wednesday at the Monte Carlo tournament, the third Masters 1,000 of the season, after losing to the American Sebastian Korda in three sets 7-6(2), 6-7 (5) and 6-3 after three hours.
The Murcian, surely the great sensation of the season, landed on the European clay court tour with a great record of 18-2 and the title at the Masters 1,000 in Miami (United States), but he could not offer his best version against a rival also called to be the protagonist in the circuit.
The duel against the American, 21 years old and whom he had defeated last November to be crowned ‘master’ of the ‘Next Gen’, was a roller coaster, marked by the number of breaks that were experienced, a total of 13 and with 29 ‘break’ balls in total, and due to unforced errors, 48 from the Spaniard, who was never quite comfortable with the wind and wasted his good options in all the sleeves.
Korda, who hit 36 winners, wanted to punish the two-handed backhand of Juan Carlos Ferrero’s pupil, eighth favorite, who started in tow and was 4-2 down after losing his serve. However, there he reacted and got 5-4 service. He did not take advantage of it, nor a new ‘break’ to serve with 6-5 and ended up giving up the sleeve in the ‘sudden death’.
Despite his anger, Alcaraz did not lose focus and began dominating the second set with a new ‘break’ that placed him 3-0. Korda didn’t lose his cool either and was able to respond again to this disadvantage, to another break and to three set points with the Murcian remaining at 5-4.
However, this time he could not handle the tie-break and the Spaniard forced a third and final set that seemed to be on track with a quick break to go 2-0. That was the beginning of the end because the American recovered and only let him play one more game to get through to the second round.
For his part, the Catalan Albert Ramos did manage to qualify, leaving out another of the top seeds, the British Cameron Norrie, seventh, whom he beat in three sets 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, after a match in which he only showed loopholes with the serve in the second set.
The Barcelonan will now face the Polish Hubert Hurkacz, eleventh seeded on the Monegasque red clay, who eliminated the Valencian Pedro Martínez in three sets 6-3, 4-6 and 6-4 for a place in the quarterfinals. .