An unstoppable Carlos Alcaraz comes of age with the pass for the final at the Masters 1000 in Madrid

On his twentieth birthday, Carlos Alcaraz went from adolescence to adulthood doing what he does best, winning. This time his victim was the Croatian Born Coric as a victim (6-4 and 6-3) and the gift was reaching the final of the Masters 1000 in Madrid for the second consecutive time, which he already conquered last year.

With too much ambition“I want to be among the best in history”he said this week – and with dazzling tennis, the physical explosiveness of his age and the experience of being the youngest number one in history, Alcaraz collects all the ingredients to win what is proposed. On the track, Manolo Santana of Caja Mágica masterfully mixed them to obliterate Coric.

An hour and 40 minutes were needed for Alcaraz to win the game, played on a crowded track and with 25 degrees of temperature. The birthday cake was the bonus track at a tennis party.

The first game lasted up to 12 minutes and let us understand that the clash would not have been a walk in the park for the Murciano: the mistakes made in the first bars, with Coric very agile under the net, made the public applaud and cheer for the local hero. At the beginning Alcaraz was unable to get the most out of his drop shots, because the Croatian, feared on the circuit for his speed, hit many and, at the same time, dared successfully with just a few.

The Croatian’s legitimate aspirations to defeat Alcaraz began to be frustrated in the fifth game, when two of his errors, a drop shot and two right-footed shots from world number two gave him his first break. He confirmed that advantage without struggling, even if Coric, twentieth in the world rankings, always remained in the set and surprised his rival by catching him on the wrong foot or with incredible parallel bars.
Alcaraz served to close the set and with a repertoire of his best tennis – serve, forehand, left – he took the match blank.

After a 1-1 draw in the second set, the match was decided in the next three games. Under the eyes of the legendary Björn Borg, Alcaraz managed a new ‘break’ and the Croatian responded with a counterbreak, but the Murcian refused to run from behind and accelerated again to take the lead.

Coric proved he can handle success last year, when as world No. 152 he successively defeated Rafael Nadal, Feliz Auger-Aliassime and Stefanos Tsitsipas, all in the top-10, en route to victory in the Masters 1,000 in cincinnati. Alcaraz knew he couldn’t afford to be wrong.

The points were shortened and Alcaraz took the best part. With luxurious details, such as a direct serve point with a second serve or an indisputable volley, he stopped at 5-3, one step away from the final.

With a wrong shot and a right from Alcaraz on the line, Coric finds himself with a menacing 15-40. Alcaraz did not tremble. He returned safely and the Croatian went wide again.

The Murciano has only lost two games this year.

His rival in the final will be the winner of the semi-final which, in the Friday night session, will be played by the German Jan-Lennard Struff and the Russian Aslan Karatsev, both coming from the previous stage, in which they had already met. Karatsev won, but Struff became a lucky loser and earned his spot in the main draw.

With the Russian Alcaraz has never played. With the German, twice, in two Grand Slams, with one victory for each: that of Struff in the round of 32 at Roland Garros in 2021, that of Alcaraz in the first round of Wimbledon in 2022, in five sets.

Alcaraz reaches the final after losing only one set in the whole tournament, the first he played, against the Finnish Emil Ruusuvuori. Then he had a well-trodden path up to the final, and when he encountered some difficulties, like in the quarterfinals against the Russian Karen Khachanov, he reacted immediately to bring the result back into the logic of the standings.

After winning the Buenos Aires, Indian Wells and Barcelona titles this year (he lost the one in Rio), if he successfully defends his Caja Mágica title, he can seal his return to world number one with just one game to go this month at the Rome Masters 1000.

Source: EFE