Everything was going to ask for Carlos Alcaraz until he sprained his right ankle while chasing a ball to Nadal's counterfoot in the third game of the second set.
It is true that the Spaniard had reestablished order on the scoreboard, but
he had won the first set thanks to his courage and dynamism, breaking his rival's serve three times
.
Nadal was leading by two games to one at the time of the mishap, which did not come alone.
The resumption, once Alcaraz received the pertinent attention, was brief: 3-1, a blank game for the left-hander.
Heat stroke suffered by a person in the stands forced the match to be stopped again, this time for more than fifteen minutes.
The Murcian barely existed in the remainder of the set.
After passing through the locker room with a tie to a set, the champion this season in Rio, Miami and Barcelona recovered the momentum and precision exhibited in the first set and culminated one of the most important victories of his still short career, the fifth consecutive against a
top ten
,
a status that he himself acquired with his triumph at the Conde de Godó.
In their third meeting,
a year after adding only three games on this same stage in the second round match
and a month and a half after already standing up to him in the semifinals of Indian Wells, Alcaraz beat Nadal 6-2, 1-6 and 6-3, in two hours and 28 minutes, and will face Novak Djokovic in the semifinals this Saturday.
Only Taylor Fritz had beaten the winner of 21 Grand Slam titles this season
, and he did so in the Indian Wells final, already struggling with a rib injury that has sidelined him for almost six weeks.
The victory has enormous relevance in the growth of this player called to the greatest goals.
It is not much less of a
surprise,
because Nadal is still very much alive and counts as the most in the already close Roland Garros, but it is a strong sign that Alcaraz has broken in to stay.
lower expectations
After the three hours and five minutes he needed to get rid of Goffin in the round of 16, Nadal had lowered his expectations before a hypothetical duel with Alcaraz, who had not yet beaten Norrie when the Mallorcan appeared before the media on Thursday.
The southpaw was only facing his third game since his reappearance and needed more mileage to regain his true competitive pulse.
Alcaraz didn't have it easy against Norrie either, in a match that ended at eleven at night, almost four hours after the one played by Nadal.
In any case, healthy, just turned 19 and in a good sequence with the victory at the Conde de Godó and his entry into the
top ten
, the boy was supposed to be a plus in the physical confrontation.
A competitor by nature, Nadal was not going to throw himself into the arms of his opponent, even less in the case of a fight between Spaniards and in Madrid, a duel that brought an added component due to the generation gap: it was the widest age difference in the quarterfinals of a Masters 1000 since its origin, in 1990, after 285 tournaments.
Nadal, who will turn 36 on June 3, tried to corner his rival in the backhand zone, but was unable to prevent Alcaraz, who rose to 19 on Thursday, from being the first to keep his serve after three breaks consecutive between them.
True to his DNA, the player from El Palmar was used with great determination.
When he couldn't reverse to hit forehands, he was also able to win points with the backhand, especially the crosscourt.
Like the great players, Alcaraz raised the level he had been showing in his two previous matches at the Caja Mágica.
Once he managed to break in the fourth game of the final set, he did not shake his pulse.
Even the tape was on his side when he served for 5-2 and left the ball dead on the other side of the net that allowed him to go with that advantage to the chair.
Fate returned his to Nadal, who held 5-3 in an almost identical trance.
Alcaraz created
match point
with a dropshot and won the match with a
passing shot .
parallel that was pure fantasy.
She put her head in her hands as her parents hugged in her box.
"It is difficult for all the players to beat Nadal, but even more so for me because I have always said that he is my idol," she said at the foot of the court after the match.
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tennis
Rafael Nadal
Carlos Alcaraz