Carlos Alcaraz's sequence of successes came to an end at the hands of Jannik Sinner, who beat him in the semifinals of the Miami Masters 1000 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-1, in three hours and one minute. The Spaniard, victim of cramps at the beginning of the third partial, will yield from Monday the number 1 in the world for the benefit of Novak Djokovic. Champion in Buenos Aires and Indian Wells, Alcaraz, also a finalist in Rio, accumulated ten consecutive victories without consenting to a set and was, with 4-4 in the second, close to reaching the final, but a very ill-advised performance in the ninth game led him to lose his serve and see how then the Italian managed to turn the match around. It will be he who plays this Sunday the final against Daniil Medvedev.

With only six matches, the Alcaraz-Sinner has already acquired the sediment it deserves in the circuit. Not surprisingly, we are facing two of the tennis players called to dominate tennis throughout the decade. The Spaniard is already beginning to do it, with a much more succulent booty than that of his rival this Saturday. But Sinner, even slower, has arguments to become one of his most dangerous adversaries. He had already defeated him last year in the second round of Wimbledon and in the final of Umag and saw a match ball pass in front of him in the quarters of the US Open before falling in five sets.

In their second meeting in a few days, after Alcaraz's victory in the Indian Wells seminals, the Italian had the advantage in the first set. He went 4-1 after breaking in the fourth game and didn't go far from extending it next, but missed a single shot with 15-30 on his side and then a passing shot. Unsuccessful with the service, Alcaraz suffered with the remains, in which his opponent exposed his life, and was slow to find the answer to his direct game.

Alternatives

The first partial was full of alternatives. There were two breaks of serve in each front and the tiebreaker was reached after the Murcian committed a double fault when he had a set ball. There Sinner faltered again, again unable to capitalize on an advantage, this time 4-2 in the partial. With 4-3 and two serves, he improvised a left that did not come to mind and died in the net. Alcaraz would end up closing with an ace.

The Spaniard has more resources than Sinner, a magnificent tennis player who usually always plays at the same speed. With greater skill in shifting, Alcaraz knew how to tame him and also found a way back from a 2-0 deficit in the second set. Everything indicated that he could make the match his own, before that disastrous game that led him to the third set. Although he managed to recover from the cramps, a second break in the seventh game ended up dictating sentence. Sinner equalized to three the head-to-head between the two and achieved the difficult task of knocking down a player who until this match had been impregnable.

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  • tennis
  • Carlos Alcaraz
  • Novak Djokovic