Pablo Scarpellini Indian Wells
Indian Wells
Updated Tuesday, March 12, 2024-22:58
He started the tournament somewhat hesitant, losing the first round against the Italian
Matteo Arnoldi
, but since then he has set a cruising pace towards his second crown in Indian Wells, which would be the second in a row in the Californian desert.
Carlos Alcaraz
got rid of
Fabian Marozsan
quickly in two sets and is already in the quarterfinals, now without
Djokovic
among the contenders for the title and with the right ankle injury that he suffered in Rio de Janeiro forgotten.
[6-3 and 6-3: Narration and statistics]
It took the Murcian more than half an hour to erase the idea from Marozsan's head of repeating the victory after their only meeting on the circuit, last year in Rome.
He then pulled off the surprise in the third round at the Foro Italico, the high point of a career with an undoubted Spanish influence, directly and indirectly.
His idol as a child was
Rafael Nadal
.
He enjoyed watching it from the couch with his father, who rarely missed a game.
Later, fate wanted him to cross paths with Alcaraz in the first important tournament in which he was noticed.
Until then everything had been disappointments on the Challenger Tour.
Until he managed to qualify for a Masters 1000, the one in Rome in 2023, also beating two players from the Top 100 for the first time in his life,
Corentin Moutet and Jiri Lehecka
.
Against Alcaraz, number one at the time, his only goal was to win a few games, but he achieved much more than that.
He defeated El Palmar in two rounds, not only making a powerful jump in the ranking - from 135 to 58 that he currently occupies - but also making the mental click that he needed to maintain progression.
"Before that tournament he was very bad mentally. That's why he lost so many games," he explains.
He is now a different player.
It was in the seventh game where the crack began to open for 58 in the ATP ranking.
Alcaraz took advantage of the last of the three break balls he had available to get the first set and the match back on track.
The Hungarian giant suffered the blow and lowered the intensity of his services, one of his main weapons.
The second set followed similar paths, with the Murcian breaking in the sixth game, although Marozsan still made an attempt to fight back with two break balls immediately that he could not convert.
The departure of Novak Djokovic after his defeat against the Italian
Luca Nardi
clears the picture somewhat for the Spaniard, although his part of the draw remains a minefield.
The winner of the clash between Alexander Zverev and Alex de Minaur
awaits him in the quarterfinals
, with
Jannik Sinner
as a potential opponent in the semifinals, the match that everyone hopes to see this year in Indian Wells.