Melbourne (Australia) – Playing for the first time this year at Rod Laver Arena, after having played his first two matches of the tournament at Margaret Court, Spanish Carlos Alcaraz left a set on the way this Friday against Portuguese Nuno Borges, but secured his 10th victory in the tournament by scoring splits of 6/2, 6/4, 6/7 (3-7) and 6/2, in 2h55 of confrontation.
Qualified for the round of 16 in Melbourne for only the second time, the third favorite will face the winner of the clash between the British Jack Draper, seeded number 15, and the home tennis player Aleksandar Vukic. He has one win and one loss against the Australian and two wins and one loss against the British.
Alcaraz became the 13th Spaniard to reach the round of 16 at least twice at the Australian Open. The recently retired Rafael Nadal leads the list (15 appearances), followed by David Ferrer (9), Roberto Bautista and Tommy Robredo (5), Nicolas Almagro (4), Pablo Carreño, Juan Carlos Ferrero and Fernando Verdasco (3), and Albert Costa, Feliciano López, Felix Mantilla and Carlos Moyá (2).
It will be the 11th time that Alcaraz has competed in the round of 16 in a Grand Slam, already ranking tenth among the Spaniards who have achieved this feat the most times. Once again the leader of the list is Nadal (54), followed by Ferrer (27), Robredo (23), Verdasco (18), Ferrero (15), Bautista (14), Moyá and Manuel Orantes (13), López (12) and Sanchez (11).
Very firm start to the game from the Spaniard
The first two sets were in the control of the Spaniard, who practically gave his rival no chance thanks to his excellent performance with his serve, losing just six points in each set and not facing a single break-point against. He also made few unforced errors, 11 in the opening half and just 8 in the second, delivering 24 winning balls in this period.
-A break in the first game of the match helped Alcaraz dominate the action at the beginning, scoring another break before closing the opening set. He remained firm in the second half, it just took him a little longer to beat Borges' serve, something he only did in the ninth and penultimate game.
Drop in performance and victory in 4 sets
Alcaraz lowered his level a little in the third set, while on the other side the Portuguese had the merit of continuing to believe in order to take advantage of the Spaniard's fall, who made 22 unforced errors and won 64% of the service points. After losing a set point in the 12th game, Borges got the better of the tiebreak and reduced the loss.
However, the former world number 1 came back better in the fourth set and served well again, losing just one point with his serve. Errors also fell and remained at just 9. Thus, Alcaraz recorded two breaks and sealed the victory. He closed the game with 52 winners, 50 unforced errors and 73% service success.
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