Manuel Sanchez Gomez |
London (EFE).- Tennis needs a king for the future and Carlos Alcaraz has all the ballots to pick up the crown. And maybe not too long. In the duel of contemporary talents against Holger Rune, the Spaniard triumphed with solvency (7-6 (3), 6-4 and 6-4) and will play his first semifinals at Wimbledon this Friday against the Russian Daniil Medvedev.
Rune, a diamond of this sport and a player opposite to Murcia in character, succumbed to the power and consistency of Alcaraz, who screamed with rage as he scored a very important first set, the one that decided the match and the one that marked the future of a rivalry that will be historical.
Because Alcaraz and Rune gave a show of exchanges from the bottom that reached its culmination in the tiebreaker of that first set, where nerves stabbed the Dane, with a large army in the stands, but with fewer weapons on the track.
When an important moment arrived, Alcaraz’s racket did not tremble. Thus, the Murcian saved a break point in the first game and two 0-30s, with 4-4 and 5-5, until the ‘tie break’ sentence came.
After a couple of balls adjusted to the line and an error for each side, Rune dug his grave with a devastating double fault at 3-3. It was the moment of maximum equality and Rune, who has never passed the quarterfinals of such a tournament, fainted.
The 7-6 gave wings to the Spaniard, who did not disconnect at any time and waited for Rune’s firecracker to arrive. “He’s a little nervous,” Alcaraz said in the preview, and doubts assailed him in a shot at 4-4 and 30-30, another decisive moment for the set. The Dane’s ‘smash’ bounced in his own field and Alcaraz confirmed the break with a winning backhand return.
Demoralizing for Rune, who wasn’t playing much worse than Alcaraz, but in just over an hour and a half he was one set away from leaving London.
Without offering cracks or gaps, Alcaraz did not downshift and once again took advantage of the first break opportunity available to him. Enough to disarm a Rune angry with his box, that he received a warning for wasting time and that in the duel of the future he has lost the present.
Rune missed a lot (21 unforced against Alcaraz’s thirteen), he was imprecise at the net (18 of 31 points won) and was unable to do any damage to the Spaniard’s serve and only won 22 points on serve. He could not maintain the necessary regularity in a match of this style and shows that despite the fact that his quality can perhaps be compared to that of Murcia, his head in the best moments is still far away.
Alcaraz is already the youngest Wimbledon semifinalist since Novak Djokovic in 2007 and the seventh Spaniard in history to reach this round, after Rafael Nadal (8), Manolo Santana (2), Manuel Alonso-Areyzaga, Roberto Bautista, Andrés Gimeno and Manuel Orantes (1).
The Murcian will face Daniil Medvedev in the semifinals, who was able to beat Christopher Eubanks in the quarterfinals and whom he already beat in the Indian Wells final a few months ago. The Russian, however, beat him on court 1 two years ago in this same tournament. Of course, he was a very different Alcaraz, still far from the superstar level that he exhibits now.