Casper Ruud suddenly descends into hell. And the blow is monumental. With 3-0 in the first set, the Nordic has a lead, but it is shattered in the blink of an eye, surely due to the dizziness he feels when he is above Carlos Alcaraz and angrily turns on the turbo and presses more and more. He fights and fights, but there is no escape. The mirage lasted for a quarter of an hour for the Norwegian, which the Spaniard spent turning the situation around and using several flashes to create an entertaining duel that, as almost always, was decided in favor of number two. The 6-4 and 6-2 (in 1h 44m) take the Murcian to the game on Tuesday (1:30 p.m., Movistar) with the Italian Jannik Sinner, who is superior to Grigor Dimitrov (6-4, 3-6, 6- 2), and it sheds light on a season, translated into a true ode to regularity. You rarely click on El Palmar.
There are 14 tournaments he played this year and in 12 of them he reached at least the semifinals. There are two exceptions: Rome, third round against Fabian Marozsan and Toronto, fourth round with Tommy Paul. The rest of the layout describes the path of a Formula 1 that adds and continues, eager to leave the first stage in Asia and round off a course in which it leads the balance of titles (6) and victories (61); He is also seduced by the idea of leading linearity in the hands of Novak Djokovic. The Serb reigns supreme on both the major stages and the annual race, but the gap between them has been reduced to 580 points. From now until the end of November, the Murcian has an open field in front of him and continues to solve every intervention with excellent frugality. The performance against Ruud is remarkable.
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The Norwegian cannot find a way to hold on to it, no matter how much he resorts to one route or another or even starts with a favorable scenario like the one this Monday. The beginning is confusing, but the Spaniard reacts overwhelmingly. Before Ruud achieves an unusual result after these three games, the Nordic player is already suffering from the typical stress that Alcaraz usually puts his rivals through. He is tormented from the first encounters and forced to row against the current so as not to lose his place in the duel at the first opportunity. In the 15 minutes that the first game lasts, he makes five break opportunities and pushes, although Ruud protects his skin and then takes advantage of his opponent’s momentary distraction. There is a period of lack of control and easy affairs, but soon logic wins out. The winner does it without mercy.
“It was tough, with great exchanges at the beginning, and as the game progressed… But after the first game I found the solutions and that gave me additional self-confidence. “There I showed that I am prepared for the fight,” he says, knowing full well that in the other semifinal (10.30 a.m.) Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev will meet, superior to Ugo Hmbert (6-4, 3-6 and 6-1). and Nicolás Jarry (6-1, 6-7(5) and 6-3, respectively).
In their four encounters, Ruud, a hard worker, an exemplary professional and an increasingly better man on the asphalt, fell; However, his tennis has not yet received sufficient response to extremely aggressive proposals like those of Alcaraz. At 24, the Oslo native has become a fixture in the top 10 and has already reached three Grand Slam finals, Roland Garros (2022 and 2023) and the US Open (2022), but he keeps falling out It happened in Marbella, Miami and New York, and the scene is repeated again in China, where Alcaraz is already flying through the penultimate round of the tournament without having dropped a single set and is on an upward trend. As in the previous two seasons against the German Yannick Hanfmann and the Italian Lorenzo Musetti, the fate of the game is in his hands.
Ruud tries everything, more direct or pasty in the rally, changing the height or hitting flat, but he has to hold the wall at all times. He fends off his rival’s aggression up to 11 times, who ends up hitting four break opportunities and making a lucky decision. At cruising speeds, very few can stop Alcaraz. There is Djokovic and Medvedev. And very little else. Fresh and sharp, like a green-clad rocket, he awaits Tuesday’s game unscathed, underlining once again the precociousness that fans are used to, who would not have thought that a player under 21 would be able to do so since then The Swede Stefan Edberg, who finished 16th in 1986, has achieved many semi-finals in the same season. Big words, another day.
CARREÑO RETURNS SEVEN MONTHS LATER
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Pablo Carreño returned this Monday after a seven and a half month absence due to an elbow injury. The 32-year-old Spaniard returned to the court at the Alicante Challenger, which takes place at the Ferrero Tennis Academy facilities in Villena (Alicante). He lost 6:3 and 7:5 to the Valencian Pedro Martínez, but passed the physical examination after the long period of inactivity.
The man from Gijón started having serious problems with his elbow in November 2022. Specifically, severe tendonitis, which did not prevent him from competing in Australia at the beginning of the year, but did afterward. The first round duel in Rotterdam on February 13th was his last appearance before this comeback, as he later suffered a severe tendon tear the day before his appearance on the court in Indian Wells.
Since then, Carreño appears to have overcome the ordeal in the hospital and will try to use this final stretch of the season to collect sensations again for 2024. Before the break he was 13th in the rankings and today he is at number 193.
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