The Murcian tennis player Carlos Alcaraz, number two in the world, is already in the semifinals of the Mutua Madrid Open by winning this afternoon in two sets (6-4 and 7-5) and in one hour hour and 46 minutes the Russian Karen Khachanov, the 12th in the ranking and who had just beaten Andrey Rublev (6th) on the clay of the Caja Mágica. Alcaraz had a moment of weakness in the second set, when he was 5-2 down, but his reaction was immediate and he ended up overwhelming the Russian.
After sweating in his debut against Ruusuvuori, Carlos Alcaraz, the current champion in Madrid, raised his level exponentially to, in his best version of the year, beat the German Alexander Zverev.
Against Khachanov, and after an even start, the match began to turn towards Alcaraz when in the first set, with a 3-3 scoreline, he achieved the first break of the match after a great volley into the net that left no options to russian. He had three balls to break the game and made it to the third. Although with difficulties, the Spaniard confirmed the break and took the set 6-4, offering great solidity on the serve.
In the second set Khachanov gave his best. With 2-1 he had an inspirational streak, Alcaraz’s performance dropped somewhat and the Russian made his first break of the game to get 3-1 in favor.
Alcaraz searched for the counterbreak with deep blows and came to have 0-30 in his favor, but the tennis player from Moscow defended himself with claw and secured the game to get to 4-1. Khachanov came to be 5-2 and two balls from the set, he seemed to have the third set within reach but his moment did not go beyond that.
The game then turned spectacularly for Alcaraz, who managed to get first 5-5 and on his first break ball he got 5-6. Key was a ball from Murcia that danced in the net and fell on Khachanov’s court to the despair of the Russian. Alcaraz did not fail with his service and on the first possible ball he sealed the victory that puts him in the semifinals.
