![]() Which is much of the time.Īnd the young Spaniard probably hasn’t forgotten that loss to Struff two years ago in Paris one day after Alcaraz had celebrated leaving his first 17 years behind. Yes, Alcaraz is quite swift, and powerful, too, when he wants to be. He won’t be facing the deliberate-moving Karatsev. Once Struff starts chasing Alcaraz’s missiles, the big German likely will lose some of his power. Karatsev knew he had beaten lucky loser Struff in qualifying to earn his main draw berth at Madrid. At times, Karatsev actually looked like he was just on the court and really didn’t care much if he won or not while facing Struff for the second time in a couple of weeks. Struff may not have looked like his 33-year-old self in outlasting Aslan Karatsev in one Madrid semifinal on Friday. He’s an adult now, and quite likely the best one in all of tennis. Alcaraz had just turned 18 years old that day in 2021.Īlcaraz celebrated his 20 th birthday on Friday. Of course, Alcaraz is a much different player today than the one Struff faced two years ago in straight sets at Roland Garros. It is the first time he has won a trophy on the clay since Rome 2016. This week is the first time Murray has won a title of any sort since winning an ATP 250 event in Antwerp back in 2019. Should he produce another strong performance in Rome next week he could climb high enough to be seeded for Roland Garros, as well as Wimbledon later this year. Murray is yet to confirm if he will be playing at this year’s French Open which will begin at the end of the month.Īlthough there is now an extra incentive for Murray who is set to rise to No.42 in the ATP Pepperstone rankings on Monday which will be his highest position since May 2018. In Monte Carlo he described his loss to Alex de Minaur as one of the worst performances of his career and cast doubts over his future intentions of playing tournaments on the surface. The triumph comes after what has been a lacklustre clay swing so far for the former world No.1. It is the first time he has won a Challenger event since 2005. The other was to France’s Laurent Lokoli in the second round. In Aix-en-Provence he only dropped two sets in five matches played with one of those being in the final against Paul. Murray entered into the tournament with the help of a last-minute wildcard following his first round exit at the Madrid Masters to Andrea Vavassori. But have been there supporting me and working with me to try and get better,” quoted Murray as saying during the trophy presentation. “This last year, 18 months has been a bit of a struggle with my game. Against Paul, the Brit won 68% of his service points and broke his opponent four times. It is the third time Murray has beaten a top 20 player on the Tour this season after Matteo Berrettini at the Australian Open and Alexander Zverev at the Doha Open. The three-time Grand Slam won 12 out of the last 15 games played during his 2-6, 6-1, 6-2, triumph over the world No.17. Stebe was too tired after the long travel from Switzerland and dropped his serve four times. South Korea’s Soonwoo Kwon cruised past Gstaad finalist Cedrik-Marcel Stebe 6-2 6-1 after 71 minutes. Juan Ignacio Londero came back from one set down to beat Christian Garin 3-6 6-2 6-3 dropping his serve once. The British player dropped only eight points in his 6-0 win in the second set. Norrie wasted three set points before winning the tie-break of the first set 7-5. ![]() Last week’s Atlanta semifinalist Cameron Norrie beat Gregoire Barrere 7-6 6-0 after 1 hour and 24 minutes. Radu Albot edged past Janko Tipsarevic 7-5 2-6 6-0 in 2 hours and 1 minute to clinch his 23th win of the season. ![]() Taro Daniel cruised past Tennys Sandgren 6-2 6-0 with five breaks of serve. ![]() The young US player sealed the win with a hold at love in the 10th game to clinch his 23th win of the season. Fritz never faced a break point and converted two break point chances at 3-2 in the first set and 2-2 in the second set. Taylor Fritz beat qualifier Dominik Koepfer 6-3 6-4 in 59 minutes. The tie-break was super tight”,said Dimitrov. It was just harder to return well, and then again in the third, he played a good game to break me when I was serving for the match. “I knew I had to be ready for everything. Dimitrov sealed the tie-break 7-5 with a volley winner on his second match point. He dropped his serve, as he was serving for the match. The Bulgarian player got a break lead in the sixth game of the decisive set, but he did not convert a match point at 5-3 40-30. Dimitrov came back from 2-5 down in the opening set to win the tie-break of the first set 7-4.
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