Carlos Alcaraz beats Tommy Paul to keep his Sunshine Double hopes alive - UBITENNIS
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Carlos Alcaraz beats Tommy Paul to keep his Sunshine Double hopes alive

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Carlos Alcaraz overcame Tommy Paul 6-4 6-4 in an entertaining match in 1 hour and 36 minutes in the fourth round of the Miami Open to keep his hopes of winning the Sunshine Double alive. Alcaraz won 17 of his 18 matches this year. He lost just one match against Cameron Norrie in the final of the Rio Open last February. 

 

Aicaraz is aiming to become the Sunshine Double after winning at Indian Wells earlier this month. 

The Spaniard hit 22 winners compared to 9 from Paul and won 12 of his 13 points. 

Both players held on serve in the first four games, before Alcaraz ran from the back of the court to get a ball back in play to break serve for 3-2. The player missed a chance for a double break. Paul earned a break point at 5-4 down, but Alcaraz held his serve to seal the opening set after 49 minutes. 

Alcaraz earned the decisive break in the third game of the second set. Paul was not able to break back. The next games went on serve and Alcaraz sealed his spot in the quarter final

“I feel at home here. It’s easy to play for me in Miami with all the energy I receive from the crowd, it’s amazing. I enjoy it and I think and I think it’s key why I play at such a high level for every match. I am really happy with the level I am playing and hope to keep going. I played a really great match and hope to play the same level in the quarter finals. I moved well, defended very well and attacked as well. If I play the same level I am going to have a lot of chances to get through the quarter finals”,said Alcaraz. 

Alcaraz set up a fourth round match against Taylor Fritz beat Hoger Rune 6-3 6-4 in 85 minutes to reach the quarter final at the Miami Open for the first time in his career. 

Fritz had never gone beyond the fourth round in his six previous appearances in Miami. This year he has won three consecutive matches against Emilio Nava, Denis Shapovalov and Holger Rune.

Fritz converted his break point in the eighth game to win the opening set 6-3. The US player broke Rune in the opening game of the second set, where he made just three unforced errors and won 12 of his 15 first serve points. 

Fritz has improved his win-loss record to 20-5 this season and won an ATP Tour title in Delray Beach. The US player dropped to 10th position in the ATP Ranking after his defeat against Jannik Sinner in the quarter finals in Indian Wells, where he was defending his last year’s titles. 

““It helps when I can grab early breaks in the sets and just play solid tennis. Serve well and hold onto the breaks. That always makes a match a lot easier. I could not play aggressively in my first two matches because my opponents were hitting every ball as hard as they could. Rune still crushes the ball, but it was nice to feel I had some more time. The first two rounds, it was it was impossible to play my game, I just had to make balls. Today when I got the chance to be aggressive I just wanted to serve well and try not to give many free points. I think my average level of tennis is a lot higher. I don’t need to show up and play my best, that level is higher than it used to be. I feel I can come through and win a lot of matches”, said Fritz. 

Karen Khachanov beat Stefanos Tsitsipas for the first time in his career with a 7-6 (7-4) 6-4. 

Tsitsipas was not able to convert two break points and dropped his serve in the fifth game of the second set.

Khachanov will face either Lorenzo Sonego or Francisco Cerundolo. Emil Ruusuvuori came back from a set and a break down to beat Botic Van de Zandschulp 4-6 6-4 7-5. Ruusuvuori set up a quarter final against Jannik Sinner.  

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Iga Swiatek Appeared To Have An Easy Path To A Third French Title

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Iga Swiatek’s path to a third French Open title in four years looked so easy and accommodating.

 

There was a Brazilian left-hander few fans knew anything about and a Czech ranked 43rd in the world.

There wasn’t even power-hitting Aryna Sabalenka to worry about this time.

Surely, Swiatek could do a French waltz right past Beatriz Haddad Maia to the final and then take care of Karolina Muchova on Saturday.

TABLE WAS SET FOR IGA

The table was set for 22-year-old Iga Swiatek, the current No. 1 who couldn’t lose, or so it seemed.

But Haddad Maia turned out to be better than most observers expected in Thursday’s women’s semifinals. The Brazilian was 6-1 tall, and apparently capable of getting into Swiatek’s head.

The Polish Wonder couldn’t keep her eyes on the ball and still watch Haddad Maia’s move from a very wide stance to a narrow, moving, sometimes closer position even before Swiatek could make contact with her service toss.

HADDAD MAIA PROVIDES SERIOUS TEST

A double fault here and a double fault there, and Swiatek was in the middle of some serious opposition from Haddad Maia. Swiatek was even forced into a 16-point match tiebreaker before she could claim a 6-2, 7-6 (7) victory.

Most of the time, fans have grown to expect love games and few double faults from the usually near-flawless slender and speedy 5-9 Swiatek.

And now she could think about one more opponent. And Muchova already had taken care of Swiatek’s key rival for the world’s No. 1 ranking, the second-ranked Sabalenka, earlier in the day.

MUCHOVA MADE SABALENKA PAY A PRICE

Muchova made Sabalenka pay for her reckless play and over-hit forehands. Muchova, a slender  26-year-old, even won 20 of the last 24 points in a 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 7-5 upset of Sabalenka.

Of course, current Australian Open champion Sabalenka was hoping for a shot at a second straight Grand Slam title. From a break-point 5-2, match point opportunity in the third set, Sabalenka couldn’t find the court.

Once again, Swiatek will be going against an opponent who held a 1-0 edge in head-to-head matchups before the current French Open. Swiatek had lost one three-set match each against Haddad Maia and the 5-11 Muchova.

Don’t expect the gifted Swiatek to feel the pressure so much in the final against Muchova. The semifinal against Haddad Maia was just a little different. 

James Beck was the 2003 winner of the USTA National Media Award. A 1995 MBA graduate of The Citadel, he can be reached at Jamesbecktennis@gmail.com. 

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Is Iga Swiatek On Her Way To Becoming A Roland Garros Legend?

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Rafa Nadal couldn’t have done it better.

 

There was Iga Swiatek dominating another top 10 opponent on the court Rafa loves so much, while her favourite player is still sidelined by hip surgery and expects his legendary career to come to a close next year.

Indeed, Swiatek may be on her way to becoming a legend herself on Court Philippe Chatrier at the French Open. The Polish Wonder already owns two titles at Roland Garros and is in line to possibly win two more matches there over the next three days for a third French title.

Of course, that’s a long way from the number of titles Nadal has won in the Paris Grand Slam. Fourteen titles sound like an out-of-reach dream for anyone to capture at the same Grand Slam, even the 22-year-old Swiatek.

SWIATEK ON HER GAME

The top-ranked Swiatek was on her game in Wednesday’s quarterfinals, starting strong and then winning nine of the last 12 games against young Coco Gauff in a 6-4, 6-2 win over last year’s runner-up.

Gauff played her usual aggressive game, but at times appeared to go for too much too often. She appeared to overpower Swiatek at times with her big serve, but only on first serves. Otherwise, the 19-year-old American didn’t seem to have her weapons under control much of the match.

IGA ALWAYS APPEARS TO BE READY

No one in the women’s game anticipates better than Swiatek. She always appears to be ready for the next shot.

Opponents can never count Iga out. And allowing her to get ahead in a match is almost like turning over the controls to Swiatek, who already owns three Grand Slam titles and has now advanced to the semifinals in four of her last six Grand Slams.

Swiatek jumped out to a 3-1 lead against the sixth-ranked Gauff, then dropped a pair of games before taking full charge of the match.

James Beck was the 2003 winner of the USTA National Media Award. A 1995 MBA graduate of The Citadel, he can be reached at Jamesbecktennis@gmail.com. 

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Casper Ruud Topples Rune To Reach French Open Semis

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Casper Ruud came out on top in his all-Scandinavian clash with Holger Rune to seal his place in the semi-finals of the French Open. 

 

Ruud, who is seeded fourth in the draw, battled to a 6-1, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, win over his Danish opponent in what was a topsy-turvy encounter on the Philippe Chatrier Court. It is the second year in a row that the Norwegian has defeated Rune in the last eight of Roland Garros and he now leads their head-to-head 6-1. He is through to the last four of a major for only the third time in his career. 

“I’m very relieved. I came into this match trying to not play with pressure but it is not easy when you’re playing a big match against Holger who is never easy,” Rune said during his post-match interview. “He is very aggressive. Luckily for me the first two sets he wasn’t feeling it too well. He made a lot of errors and I got a lot of points for free.’
“That helped settle my nerves but he fought back in the third set. In the fourth set, I was lucky to keep that break.”

The highly anticipated nighttime clash began in one-way fashion with Ruud claiming 12 out of the first 15 games with relative ease as an erratic Rune struggled to find his game on the court, hitting a total of 40 unforced errors during the first two sets. 

It wasn’t until the third frame that Ruud finally faced some resistance on the court as his opponent orchestrated the crowd to get behind him. Prompting the 20-year-old to hit a series of impressive shots to revive his hopes.

However, Rune’s comeback was short-lived as Ruud broke once more midway through the fourth set as he moved to a game away from victory. He earned his first match point at 5-2 following a double fault from his rival but failed to convert. Two more opportunities then came and went for Ruud before he managed to serve the match out in the following game.

“I think I did well,” he replied when asked about how he handled his nerves. “I kind of looked at it (the match) as if he was the favourite. He won the last time we played and he has had a better year than me so far.’
“He was hoping to get into his first (Grand Slam) semi-final and I was hungry to get into another semi-final. Luckily it worked out well for me.”

Awaiting the 24-year-old in the semi-finals on Friday will be Alexander Zverev who defeated Tomás Martín Etcheverry in four sets. He trails their head-to-head 1-2 but they have never faced each other on clay. 

“Ruud has been there before. He was in the final here last year, so he knows exactly what it means and what it takes,” Zverev told reporters.  

Ruud is now 16-5 this season when it comes to playing matches on the clay. Since the start of 2020, he has registered 86 wins on the surface which is more than any other player on the ATP Tour.

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