Masters 1000 Madrid – eighths –
This is how extraordinary people spend their time. When the circumstances are more pressing, when Jan-Lennard Struff pushes harder, when things have been getting uglier because when the link to history is not put, anguish and doubts usually come, Carlos Alcaraz takes out that wand that changes everything and sentences a duel of almost three hours; above all, maximum tension: 6-3, 6-7(5) and 7-6(4), in 2h 52m. He was reluctant to let the ball in, but the Murcian, a genius himself, holed out at the right moment, when most people’s legs stiffen and their inspiration falters. Tennis, deep down, is a lot about that: being special when you play. A magnificent early bounce backhand and a perfect lob define the tie-breakerand guide the defending champion towards the quarterfinals, in which he will clash this Wednesday with the Russian Andrey Rublev (6-2 and 6-4 against Tallon Griekspoor).
“It has been incredible to be able to play this level for three hours, after a month without competition,” he highlights at the foot of the court. “It has been difficult to manage all these emotions, the tension has not gone away until the last point,” continues Alcaraz, author of a sequence of 24 consecutive triumphs on Spanish clay, 14 of them in the San Fermín neighborhood. “And that has caused the ups and downs that I have had, but this is tennis and you have to deal with these things. It seemed that physically at the end I was a little low, but I am super happy to have managed my emotions well and to have another chance in the next round,” concludes the winner, previously exposed to a stormy author’s afternoon. Struff, a guy with very clear things.
His gesture, all conviction, is a declaration of intentions. Alcaraz knows the ways and anarchy of the German, which makes him a rather unpredictable player, who can go one way or another because his size is deceptive; clumsy, nothing. Despite his size—1.93 and wide shoulders, very long stride—he moves very well, and he also breaks it from the trench when handcuffed to the net. This time, there is no doubt: he goes on the assault from the beginning. In the shape of a wave. He goes all out and finds an adversary who was waiting for him. ‘Come here, I’m not afraid of you’, the man from Murcia comes to tell him, who responds to the climbs and constant challenges on the internet with determination and great doses of success: this is my territory, giant. Do you remember the final from a year ago?
Resists the onslaught—three balls of break saved at the beginning—and little by little he begins to uncover his arsenal, one of the richest and most varied on the circuit. For example, an extraordinary intern that reaches 173 km/h. “Come on, let’s go!” her coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, encourages her from the side, while the team’s guru, Antonio Martínez Cascales, breathes with relief when the boy makes a perhaps unnecessary wrist demonstration but that he, pure fantasy, needs. do. Because only they, the artists, know why they do it that way. ‘Calm down, everything under control’, he comes to tell his people with a half smile. That mischief is an excellent sign because, after all, if he enjoys success, it is closer. His choice. Alcaraz perceives and captures what for the majority is science fiction.
Once those first moments of trouble have been overcome, the Murcian gradually imposes his plan, reacting from the sober line that he has been offering these days in Madrid, always seasoned with sparkles. The forearm no longer hurts, he says, but the risk is there—in the head, above all—and the priority today is to incorporate the automatisms that he could not adopt in Monte Carlo or Barcelona, as a result of the injury. According to what we have seen, the recovery is going in the right direction and those treacherous thoughts that circulate from time to time out there, logically, do not prevent him from unleashing the occasional furious right hand that overwhelms the German, surpassed by some whiplashes that hit the German. 220 km/h.
In any case, Struff is into speed. His first serves register an average of 212 km/h and the peak on his serve is set at 229 km/h. The gunboat does not lose faith and continues to err and error, pressing all the time, extremely uncomfortable, leaning out wherever he can and trying to destabilize Alcaraz with an aggressive and revolutionized proposal: everything is electric, everything must go fast; without pause or truce. Without mediocrities: an open grave. The sooner the better. He returns over the line, to bounce soon; He takes the rhythm out of the duel and tries to impose that coming and going that ends up benefiting him. At times, he seems to play on a paddle tennis court. After recovering the break that fits right at the beginning of the second set, his tide of blows and volleys expands and obtains results, and in the tiebreaker he closes with a ace millimeter.
Alcaraz, then, is forced to make a move. His father looks at him and puts his finger to his temple, “head, Carlitos, head,” and the Spaniard throws more and more drop shots, to see if he can make his rival lose focus and go wrong. But nothing, not yet. The one in front does not let go of the prey, he does not give in even with shots. He recovered from the impact of the first set, got up in the second and also counterattacked in the third, despite the fact that the Spaniard had a 5-2 lead and four options to close. He falls warning Struff takes a breath, but he doesn’t blink. He nails another straight serve next. The match has been drifting towards the terrain of mud, of the psychological and of the nuances, but the outcome is becoming more complicated – saving a ball of break with 5-5—, the talent of the Murcian flourishes and decides. From entanglement to happiness.
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