Injury and goodbye to Alcaraz in Paris

Carlos Alcaraz

conceded defeat due to injury against Holger Rune in the quarterfinals of the Masters 1,000 in Paris.

The Murcian, who ten before had received medical attention for a problem on his left side, left after noticing another puncture when he served in the tie break of the second set, with 3-6 and 6-6 against.

That it was going to be a tough afternoon, he could sense seeing the level that the Dane had been dragging in recent weeks, and that he maintained to dominate his friend and rival.

The injury adds more salt to the defeat.

Rune, who lost the Basel final to Auger-Aliassime on Sunday, reserves revenge in the semifinals against the Canadian, the fittest tennis player on the circuit.

Alcaraz and Rune know each other too well.

These days an image of when they made a doubles pair in Les Petits As, the most prestigious international tournament for children under 14, had gone viral again.

She appeared for the first time through the Murcian nets in June, when both entered the fourth round of Roland Garros.

And this Thursday he rescued her again with the emoji of the little eyes, raising expectations for this duel -the first in professionals if the Next Gen of a year ago is ignored.

The first of a list that promises to be very long.

Alcaraz and Rune are generation partners (2003), although the evolution is being very different.

The irruption of the Murcian was earlier and more explosive;

that of the Danish goes to slower fire, if it is that it is slow that he is already one of the 20 best in the world.

And that was the level, if not more, that he showed against the number one.

Rune was unapproachable from the service and knew how to exploit Alcaraz's weakness very well with the backhand.

Only in the first set, the Murcian accumulated seven unforced errors with that hit.

The news was not better with the service: in that first set, the player from Palmar only won 36% of the player's points with his second serve, an even more damaging fact on an afternoon in which the first ones were slow to enter.

If there was one image that summed up that lockout, it was the sixth game, which they went on to win 40-15.

Then came a bad two-handed backhand, a very poorly measured dropshot, a smash that stayed in the net... And as the icing on the cake, a ball by Rune that he let pass thinking he was out and confirmed the break for the Dane.

Looking for the keys, Carlos Alcaraz changed his strategy in the second set.

Since Rune was in command from the baseline, he started to climb higher into the net.

To look for the serve and volley, shorten the points, to avoid a melee in which the Dane was being superior.

The recipe worked, although from time to time he kept showing that lack of finesse that he suffered all afternoon, long before asking for medical assistance.

In fact, in one of those many unforced errors, Alcaraz wanted to hit the ball with a racket shot out of frustration, and even that hit went wrong.

The Murcian shook his head, yelling "Let's go!"

trying to cheer himself up, pissed off that he hadn't taken either break ball, but nothing worked.

Until on an afternoon when everything went against the grain, a puncture in the left side put an anticlimactic end to a duel that promises to be generational.

With the ATP Finals in the background, Alcaraz preferred to concede a defeat that he had deserved to endanger the final stretch of the course.

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