2023-08-19 02:04:00
World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz suffered, but the young prodigy advanced to the Cincinnati Masters 1000 semifinals for the first time on Friday, defeating Australian Max Purcell 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
Alcaraz worked hard this week to reach the semi-finals following two more wins in straight sets earlier this week once morest Australian Jordan Thompson and American Tommy Paul.
The Spaniard ended the duel with his sixth ace of the game, moments following saving a break point that would have brought the score to 5-5 in the final set.
Previously, Purcell, 70th player in the world, had shown opportunism in the role of returner, getting the break of service on each of his first two chances.
Coming from qualifying, Purcell had made his way to the round of 16 by surprising Swiss veteran Stan Wawrinka and No. 7 Casper Ruud in the previous rounds.
“I didn’t know him that much before the game,” Alcaraz said of Purcell. He impressed me a lot. It was a very difficult game. »
For a place in the final, Alcaraz will face the Pole Hubert Hurkacz, who defeated the Australian Alexei Popyrin, 6-1, 7-6 (8).
Zverez has a date with the Djoker
In the third quarter of the day, the German Alexander Zverev, ex-no. 2 in the ATP rankings, easily defeated the Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 6-2, 6-3 to reach the last quartet in Ohio.
Zverev, who finished the match in just 71 minutes of play, is the champion of the 2021 edition of the Cincy tournament. He has savored victory in each of his last nine outings at the Southern & Western Open.
Novak Djokovic for his part was expeditious and overcame Taylor Fritz in two sets of 6-0 and 6-4, to end the evening of tennis Friday in Cincinnati.
Fritz, 9th racket in the world, was muzzled in the first set. The American won only 8 of 32 points, in addition to being broken three times on three occasions.
The 25-year-old tennis player rebounded in the second set, breaking the 2nd player in the ATP ranking from the start. Djokovic came back on the charge later in the engagement, however, and smashed the crowd favorite to level the score and then take a 5-4 lead.
At the hour mark, the Djoker once more broke his vis-à-vis to complete the loop.
Djokovic and Zverev will therefore cross swords for the 12th time on the ATP circuit. The veteran has won seven of the first 11 meetings; however, the German has been right in two of the last three meetings.
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