Tag: Alcaraz

Carlos Alcaraz fought past American Ben Shelton in a tight four-set match to reach the French Open quarter-finals, while Iga Swiatek staged a comeback to defeat Elena Rybakina and keep her bid for a fourth straight title alive.

Reigning champion Alcaraz clinched a 7-6 (10⁄8), 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 victory after three hours and 19 minutes on Court Philippe Chatrier on Sunday to book a last-eight berth for a fourth straight year.

Alcaraz will take on Tommy Paul in the quarter-finals, after the 12^th  seed saw off Australia’s Alexei Popyrin 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.

“Today I fought against myself in the mind,” he said. “In some moments I was mad, I was thinking not very good things. But I’m really happy that I didn’t let the bad thoughts play against me… I tried to calm myself down and keep going.”

The four-time Grand Slam champion saved three set points in a dramatic opening-set tie-break before clinching it himself on his second.

He crucially then saved six break points in a marathon first game of the second set, before going on to win it courtesy of a break in the eighth game.

American 13^th  seed Shelton deservedly got a set on the board to extend the match, but Alcaraz quickly bounced back with an early break in the fourth.

The second seed saw a match point come and go in the ninth game of the set, but he quickly brought up another one on his own serve and took the opportunity with a trademark forehand winner.

Read Also: Leverkusen slam €50m price tag on Boniface

Four-time Roland Garros champion Swiatek, who has been struggling for her best form and has not reached a final since winning the title last year, was in serious trouble when trailing 2-0 to Rybakina in the second set.

But the 24-year-old dug deep to clinch a 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory.

Swiatek is aiming to become the first woman to win four straight Roland Garros crowns since Suzanne Lenglen 102 years ago.

The Pole will next face Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, who knocked out 2024 losing finalist Jasmine Paolini, in the last eight tomorrow.

Swiatek is now on a 25-match winning streak at the French Open and boasts a remarkable 39-2 win-loss record in the tournament.

Rybakina had won both of her previous career meetings with Swiatek on clay and the Kazakh dominated the opening set, hammering 12 winners past her bewildered opponent.

“Well it was tough you know, first set I felt like I was playing against Jannik Sinner,” said Swiatek.

“I needed to do something to get back in the game, but with her playing like that I didn’t feel like I had much hope.”

Rybakina broke in the first game of the second set as she threatened to run away with the match.

But Swiatek impressively turned the set around with a run of five straight games.

The fifth seed looked to have finally seized total control with a break to lead 4-3 in the deciding set, only to hand it straight back.

Swiatek was one game from defeat when trailing 5-4, but she managed to end Rybakina’s resistance and held her nerve to serve out the match.

Svitolina made the quarter-finals for the fifth time with a comeback 4-6, 7-6 (8⁄6), 6-1 win over Paolini, saving three match points in a dramatic opening clash on Court Philippe Chatrier.

The former world number three, who has never made a Grand Slam final, will be bidding to reach a first Roland Garros semi-final when she faces Swiatek.

“I still cannot believe that this match finished my way,” said Svitolina.

World number one Aryna Sabalenka needed eight match points to wrap up a 7-5, 6-3 win over American Amanda Anisimova.

The three-time Grand Slam champion reached her 10th successive major quarter-final, where she will face Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen.

“I want to get this win after Rome, so I’m happy to face her (Zheng) in the quarters,” said Sabalenka, who lost to Zheng in the Italian Open last eight last month.

Zheng secured a quarter-final place with a hard-fought three-set victory over 19th-seeded Russian Liudmila Samsonova.

The Chinese eighth seed extended her winning streak at Roland Garros to 10 matches, winning 7-6 (7⁄5), 1-6, 6-3 on Court Suzanne Lenglen.

After capturing back-to-back Grand Slam titles and a silver medal at the Paris Olympics, world number three Carlos Alcaraz said one of his key goals for the rest of the season is to finish as the top-ranked player in the world.

The 21-year-old French Open and Wimbledon champion, who lost a thrilling Olympic final to Novak Djokovic, returns to action at this week’s Cincinnati Open, where he can gain ground on the Serb and Italian Jannik Sinner.

Alcaraz is 450 points behind world number one Sinner in the ATP live race to the season finale in Turin, the separate year-to-date standings that serve as a measuring stick for the year-end number one battle.

“Obviously being number one is a goal every time that I’m (behind) and the race is an important ranking for me. At the end of the year if you end the race number one, in the rankings it’s quite similar, so you’re going to end number one,” Alcaraz said.

Read Also: Djokovic downs Alcaraz to win  first Olympic title

“So I’m really focused on that. I’m focused on going to every tournament, thinking about playing great tennis, doing a good result just to get better in the race. This year, ending the year as number one is one of my main goals right now.”

Last year’s Cincinnati runner-up, Alcaraz will begin his campaign against Gael Monfils or Alexei Popyrin as he returns to hard-court tennis for the first time since reaching the Miami quarter-finals in March.

The Cincinnati Open is an important tune-up event for the Aug. 26-Sept. 8 U.S. Open.

“I’m excited to play here again. Obviously great memories from last year, reaching the final, losing a really tight and epic match (to Djokovic),” Alcaraz said.

Djokovic withdrew from Cincinnati after his Olympic triumph

Carlos Alcaraz raced into the Wimbledon third round  as Japanese superstar Naomi Osaka was demolished on her return to Centre Court after a five-year absence.

Alcaraz defeated Australia’s world number 69 Aleksandar Vukic 7-6 (7⁄5), 6-2, 6-2 on the back of 42 winners.

The third-seeded Spaniard’s only moments of concern came in the first set when he let slip a 5-2 lead and found himself 5-6 down with Vukic serving for the opener.

However, the three-time major winner steadied the ship to race away to victory against a player who got the better of him in qualifying at the 2020 French Open.

Alcaraz next faces fellow crowd-pleaser Frances Tiafoe, the American player he defeated in five sets in the semi-finals of the 2022 US Open on his way to his first Grand Slam triumph.

 “I’m going for him,” said Alcaraz, who is bidding to become just the sixth man after Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic to win the French Open and Wimbledon titles back to back. “I’m ready to play a really high level of tennis and hopefully take him.”

Tiafoe made the third round by seeing off Borna Coric in straight sets.

But four-time major winner Osaka, playing on Centre Court for the first time since 2019, went down 6-4, 6-1 to America’s Emma Navarro in just 59 minutes.

Read Also; Alcaraz beats Zverev to win first French Open title

The 26-year-old former world number one is now ranked at 113 having only returned to the tour in January after giving birth to daughter Shai last year.

 “I’m a little disappointed because I wanted to do really well. I feel like I put a lot of time into it. There’s always next year,” said Osaka.

Meanwhile, eccentric Fabio Fognini of Italy needed a clutch of match points to knock out eighth-seeded Casper Ruud 6-4, 7-5, 6-7 (1⁄7), 6-3.

The 37-year-old Fognini, sporting bleach-blond hair, twice served for the match from 5-2 up in the third set before sealing victory over the three-time Grand Slam runner-up in the fourth set.

 “It just shows why I love and hate this sport,” said Fognini.

Daniil Medvedev, the 2021 US Open champion, came back from dropping the first set and facing two set points in the second to see off Alexandre Muller of France 6-7 (3⁄7), 7-6 (7⁄4), 6-4, 7-5.

Tomas Machac, who had been scheduled to face Andy Murray before the two-time champion withdrew, came back from 0-5 down in the final set to beat lucky loser David Goffin in a tie-break.

World number two and US Open champion Coco Gauff cruised into the third round with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Romanian qualifier Anca Todoni.

“I’m happy with the way I played, could have been cleaner on some points,” said Gauff, who broke her 19-year-old opponent five times.

The American, who made her career breakthrough at Wimbledon as a 15-year-old qualifier in 2019, goes on to face British qualifier Sonay Kartal, the world number 298.

Carlos Alcaraz fought back to defeat Alexander Zverev in a five-set French Open final and become the youngest man to win Grand Slam titles on all three surfaces.

The 21-year-old battled cramps to recover from 2-1 down in sets and win a gripping contest 6-3, 2-6, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 after four hours and 19 minutes on Court Philippe Chatrier.

Alcaraz adds the Roland Garros crown to the Wimbledon title he won against Novak Djokovic last year and the 2022 US Open. He will head to the Australian Open next year with the chance to become the youngest man to complete the career Grand Slam.

Fourth seed Zverev, who settled a court case in Germany two days ago over domestic abuse allegations, is still waiting for a maiden major title.

He had also lost his only previous Slam final in five sets, when he blew a two-set lead against Dominic Thiem at the 2020 US Open.

Zverev had high hopes of finally getting over the line – he has also lost six Slam semi-finals – but Alcaraz was too strong in the key moments as he levelled their head-to-head record at 5-5.

Alcaraz said before the final he wanted to join the list of men’s players from his country, including his idol Rafael Nadal, to win the Roland Garros title, and he celebrated becoming the eighth Spanish champion by falling to the clay with his head in his hands in disbelief.

Zverev endured a miserable start, double-faulting on the first two points of the match en route to being broken in the opening game.

Read Also: Hajj: Pilgrims to begin return journey to Nigeria June 22, says NAHCON

But Alcaraz was not immune to the nerves of a maiden French Open final, framing a regulation forehand into the stands and then also double-faulting as he gifted the break straight back.

The Spaniard did not take too long to find his groove, though, breaking to love in the fifth game on his way to pocketing the opener.

The youngster had to save three break points to hold in a 10-minute first game of the second set, but slipped 3-2 behind when he failed to stave off two more break points as another forehand sailed into the crowd.

Suddenly Zverev had a spring in his step and Alcaraz was reduced to scrambling at the back of the court, falling a double-break down with a double-fault.

Zverev wrapped up an ultimately one-sided second set with a hold to love.

The German made it three successive love holds with two more early in the third set, before Alcaraz celebrated coming out of a tricky service game unscathed with a fist pump as he edged 3-2 ahead, despite having been largely on the back foot.

Serving into an increasingly strong breeze, Zverev was caught out by an Alcaraz return that crept over the net and the Spaniard went on to grab a break to love.

But he could not serve out the set as a rasping Zverev passing shot secured a break back.

That failure to take control of the match seemed to temporarily break Alcaraz’s spirit, as he ended up losing five games on the spin to concede the set.

Alcaraz would not go down without a fight, though, breaking for a 2-0 advantage in the fourth with a magnificent curling winner on the run.

Just seconds before, Zverev had been angrily disputing a line call which was clearly correct, drawing jeers from the crowd.

The German was rattled and his serve started to desert him, with Alcaraz racing through the fourth set to force a decider despite having to take a medical time-out to have treatment for apparent cramp at 4-1.

Zverev had won 10 of his previous 11 five-setters at Roland Garros but handed Alcaraz a break on a platter in the third game of the fifth.

Alcaraz stuttered himself, falling 0-40 down in the next game.

He appeared to have double-faulted on the second break point, but the chair umpire overruled the line judge’s call of out, despite Zverev’s angry protests, before Hawkeye replays showed it was out.

Alcaraz went on to hold and it proved to be a pivotal moment in the match.

Zverev fell a double-break down in game seven as Alcaraz delighted the fans with an outrageous flicked winner before crushing a forehand onto the line.

He wrapped up a historic victory with a booming forehand that Zverev could not get back.

World no 3 Carlos Alcaraz has withdrawn from the Monte Carlo Masters because of an injury to his right forearm, he announced on social media.

 “I have been working in Monte Carlo and trying to recover until the last minute from an injured pronator teres in my right arm, but it was not possible and I cannot play,” he wrote on X.

The 20-year-old Spaniard, whose last match came in the straight sets defeat by Grigor Dimitrov in Miami last month, was due to go straight into Wednesday’s second round in Monte Carlo against Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime.

He will be replaced in the draw by Italian Lorenzo Sonego, who was drafted in as a lucky loser, the ATP announced.

 “I was really looking forward to playing… See you next year!” concluded former world no. 1 and two-time Grand Slam winner Alcaraz, who has yet to win a single match at the Monte Carlo Masters.

Read Also: NSCDC deploys 40,000 personnel for peaceful celebration

In 2022, he arrived exhausted after his successful American tour – he reached the semi-final in Indian Wells and won in Miami – and lost his opener to American Sebastian Korda in three sets.

Last year, he withdrew just before the start of the tournament.

This time, Alcaraz waited until the third day to announce his withdrawal, which seemed inevitable given his recent training sessions, looking weak on Sunday and Monday when he did not play a single rally.

His withdrawal through injury follows on from that of Rafael Nadal last week, though Spanish media reported on Tuesday 11-time Monte Carlo winner Nadal is expected to travel to Barcelona in a bid to make his comeback at next week’s Barcelona Open.

The 37-year-old missed virtually all of the 2023 season through injury and has only played at the Brisbane International this season, missing the start of the clay court season in what could be his final year on tour as he seeks to win a record 15th French Open title.

Alcaraz now also faces a race against the clock in order to be fit for the Barcelona Open, where he will be aiming to make it three wins in three on the Catalan clay.