Arthur Rinderknech, lucky looser number 83 in the ranking, ruthlessly submitted Carlos Alcaraz in his debut at the Queen’s tournament, where he had to resort to a tie break in the third set to achieve victory (4-6, 7-5 and 7-6(3)). Again it took the Murcian more than normal to adapt to a new surface, in this case the grass, and he suffered for a few days against an opponent with very marked virtues that he knew how to maximize. After losing the first set, the Murcian recovered in the second to level the game. In the last one, he started with a break against (0-2), but point by point he managed to defeat a giant who always competed.
The meeting began with an equality that was the first sign that the tall Rinderknech (1.96 meters) was not an expert in candy. Both dominated their serve sufficiently until in the seventh game Alcaraz had three break balls. The Frenchman not only raised all three, but in the next game he broke the Spaniard’s serve. The Murcian recovered to return the break. But when the situation seemed under control, Rinderknech beat Alcaraz again to win the first set.
The French player’s high first serve percentages gave him the confidence to dare to strike freely from anywhere on the court and to go to the net on many occasions. Throughout the game he did it up to 70 times. Alcaraz was more aggressive to the rest than with his serve, where he suffered throughout the game.
In the second set the tension increased, but both were able to hold their nerves. This led to a 5-5 lead to suspect that a tie break was a real possibility, but then the best Alcaraz appeared to close the eleventh game in white. In the next one he finally asserted his serve at a decisive moment in the match and equalized the score at 7-5.
The problems came early in the last sleeve. Rinderknech won the first two games and once again had to row against the Murcian, as throughout the entire match. He did it and recovered the disadvantage, but the dynamics favored the French. Alcaraz did not chain winning blows. His rival always had one more hit or dried up the exchanges with dry shots.
Despite all the problems, Alcaraz managed to reach the tie-break. And there he used his greatest talent to dominate his rival at will and finally show the difference that exists between the two tennis players today. “It has been a very tough game. It was difficult for me at first to adjust to the grass. It’s my first grass tournament of the year. But I think I have had a great performance”, said Alcaraz.
In addition, he added that he was especially excited to play here as a pre-Wimbledon. “I wanted to play here, it’s a tournament that I’ve seen a lot on TV, it’s a special place, very nice to play. The people, the tracks are incredible… I hope to be better in the following rounds”, he wished. In the next match he will face Jirí Lehecka, Alejandro Davidovich’s executioner.
