Carlos Alcaraz is eliminated from the ATP Finals

Las ATP Finals one more year without a Spanish champion. Carlos Alcaraz, that aspired and will aspire to happen in history of the Navy to Manuel Orantes (Houston 1976) and Álex Corretja (Hannover 1998), lost in two sets (7-6 (5) and 6-4) against an immeasurable Alexander Zverev to say goodbye to this edition of the Masters Cup.

Why, Due to his negative balance of sets (2-4) and games (29-35), with one victory and two losses, Carlos, a semi-finalist in 2023, would no longer have a chance, even if Andrey Rublev beat Casper Ruud in the night session and there was a three-way tie for second place. The 27-year-old German and world number two is assured of the first and will face the American Taylor Fritz in the semifinals on Saturday.

A game with a lot of crumbs

The encouragement from the Alcaraz box, full of caps, does not stop. And the Murcian tries everything, but Zverev is impeccable. With his exquisite technique, west grip, and an average speed of 220 km/h on his first serves, he appears impregnable. In addition, he permanently threatens the services of Carlos, who manages to save a 15-40 and later a 0-40. Even a first set point for the Hamburger, before the tiebreaker. “From back there, dare, there is a lot of room”Ferrero tells his pupil, who has to stay quite far from the baseline.

The tie-break ends after a tremendous passing by Zverev which lays the foundations that lead him to win the first set, despite Alcaraz's laudable comeback attempt with a beautiful lob, of great merit against a bigar of 1.98. “An incredibly high level. Especially in the tiebreaker, it was incredible. There were some points where I thought he was Spider-Man again.”Alexander would acknowledge after the game.

The second set starts badly for him, with the first break of the match in favor of his rival who, immediately afterwards, makes him a blank game. Things are very bad. “We keep rowing, eh?”his coach tells him. But Zverev is not willing to let him sail. And Carlos debates with his team, looking for solutions. “I want to put my backhand eight meters inside and it goes outside”he tells them.

He still has a cold, plays another game with the nasal strip on, and blows his nose during breaks. And, for the first time, he has breaking balls. Although with 15-40 he hits it with the rod and the ball takes an ideal parabola for a homerun in baseball, not for tennis. Then he misses two rights and goodbye. “Always on the net, always!”he complains. And nothing changes. Zverev also improves and wins exchanges in long exchanges. He runs like a gazelle to reach the drops, although one of them allows Alcaraz to find the gap through which to put a passer in the last game and dream of a comeback. However, a setback that seemed to go in, narrowly missed him. And Sascha sends him a kick missile, which he can't return. That's it for his second adventure in Turin. Until next year. “He beat me many times this year in important matches, so I'm happy to have won this one. I feel like we have a great rivalry and also a great friendship. It's always nice to play with him, except when he beats me… That's not nice. But sharing the court with him… he is a great guy”, the winner says. Long live the fair play.

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