Madrid, May 6 (EFE) Carlos Alcaraz, great favourite, and the German Jan Lennard Struff, an aspiring, lucky loser in the previous phase, with whom almost no one counted for the bid for the trophy.
The German, usually distanced from the peak moments of the events, 33 years old and ranked 65th in the ATP ranking, is the first rescued from the qualifying round to reach the final of a Masters 1000 category tournament.
On Sunday, on the Manolo Santana court of the Caja Mágica, this Warstein player will play the second final of his career with the intention of inaugurating a record without wins on the ATP circuit.
The German has alternated throughout 2023 the tournaments of the professional circuit with those of lower rank. Regular in the challengers in this course, he reared his head in the Monte Carlo Masters 1000, where he progressed to the quarterfinals, surpassed by the Russian Andrey Rublev, champion in the end.
For the fourth time he broke into the Magic Box. In three years he only played five games in Madrid. He won only two, in the first round of 2018 and 2019 and in 2021 he stalled in the initial stretch. Back in Madrid he had to go through the previous phase in 2023. He didn’t earn his place in the main draw because he lost to Russia’s Aslan Karatsev, whom he beat in the semifinals to fulfill his revenge after a tournament loss gave him a second chance.
“I was very happy to have a second chance. It was my birthday and I lost but I was lucky to be recovered. It’s a crazy story. I could never have imagined reaching the final afterwards. That shows that you should never give up and always have to try. Now I will play the final with Alcaraz in the midst of a great atmosphere and it will be very difficult to beat him. I can’t wait to play the final”, points out Struff.
The German lost the only final he has played, in Munich in 2021 against Nicoloz Basilashvili. If he beats Alcaraz he will be the oldest player to win a Masters 1000 for the first time. The American John Isner, winner of Miami 2018 at the age of 32, currently holds this record.
It will be the third time Alcaraz and Struff will meet. The German who last year left the top hundred in the world after breaking his toe had to make merits in minor tournaments. Now, he will leave Madrid in the worst case in 28th place, the best in his career.
Jan Lennard Struff and Carlos Alcaraz have met twice before in two Grand Slams. First at Roland Garros, in 2021 and the German won in three sets. Last year, at Wimbledon, the victory went to the Spaniard who needed five sleeves to progress in the tournament.
“I won in 2021 but for young people two years is a long time. We played a great match at Wimbledon last year and I came close to winning. But he was at a great level in the tie break. It will be different on Sunday, in Spain, in Madrid. But I am going to give everything to win my first title, ”he warned.
Carlos Alcaraz, however, has made good predictions and the first favorite has reached the final. He intends to revalidate the title achieved last year and join Rafael Nadal as the only two players to have won two trophies in a row in Madrid.
The Murcian, who may be the youngest to successfully defend a Masters 1000 since Nadal, who did so in Monte Carlo and Rome in 2005 and 2006, has the tenth title of his career at hand and the fourth this year after the Masters 1000 of Indian Wells, Barcelona and Buenos Aires and raise to four also the accumulated trophies in events of this category after those in Miami and Indian Welles and this one in Madrid, last year.
Alcaraz accumulates twenty victories in a row in Spanish ground tournaments, between Barcelona and Madrid, in the last two courses. This campaign, he has eighteen wins and only one loss on clay. Throughout the course, he has only lost two matches, against the Italian Jannik Sinner in Miami, in the semifinals, and against the British Cameron Norrie in the final in Rio de Janeiro.
“I have not stopped to think that, oh my gosh, I am 20 years old and I have just started. But I have fought to be in these conditions, this is what I have always wanted. I don’t have vertigo because of what I’ve already experienced or because of what I have left to live”, assured the number two in the world. “I am enjoying it with my team, my family and my friends, we are a fairly large group. Enjoying the victories is fundamental, getting off the track and savoring the victories”, he added.
“I don’t feel like the best in the world right now, I try to think of myself, but I don’t feel superior to anyone,” Carlos Alcaraz added in his reflection.
The Spanish tennis player, who will go to Paris on Monday for the Laureus Awards where he is nominated for “revelation of the year”, points to number one in the world. He was in his day the youngest to reach the top of the circuit when he won the US Open and the youngest to close out a season in that situation. Now, from second place in the ranking, the calculations favor him. If he beats Struff on Sunday, just by jumping on track at the 1000 masters in Rome, even if he loses in his debut, he will be number one. In that condition he will arrive at Roland Garros.
Alcaraz will play in the Caja Mágica for the title for the second consecutive time. 2022 was his consecration, with consecutive victories against Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. He now faces his consolidation in his sixth Masters 1000 semifinal of his career, the third of the season. He won Indian Wells against Daniil Medvedev and lost to Sinner in Miami.
santiago aparicio