Top seed Carlos Alcaraz secured his place in the quarter-finals in Doha by recovering brilliantly after a second-set wobble to defeat Frenchman Valentin Royer 6–2, 7–5.
After a high-level opening set, Alcaraz’s level dipped in the second as an unexpected spike in errors, particularly off the forehand, allowed World No. 60 Royer back into the contest. The Frenchman capitalised, breaking the Spaniard to move 3–1 ahead.
But just when it appeared the match was heading for a decider, with Alcaraz trailing 5–2 in the second set, the Spaniard underlined why he is arguably the toughest competitor in men’s tennis. Raising his level dramatically, he reeled off five consecutive games with a dazzling array of shot-making to seal a straight-sets victory and book a quarter-final meeting with Russia’s Karen Khachanov.
After the match Alcaraz spoke to Sky Sports about finding his focus again when his level started to drop in the second set.
“Obviously I had to be prepared for everything. There were some moments I thought about the third set, I’m not going to lie. Just a small place in my mind where I was thinking about the third set, the rest was working to find the solution, to find the right way to win the game.
“I was really happy that I was able to find the good rhythm again, the good tennis. It’s just about fighting. I know tennis, it’s just about one point and sometimes it’s really difficult to close the sets, the matches. I’m happy to turn it around and get the win in straight sets.”
When the disappointment of how the second set ended fades, Royer can take considerable encouragement from the manner in which he forced Alcaraz to raise his level.
Even with the Spaniard below his best for much of the set, Royer applied relentless pressure through precise shot-making and a targeted assault on the forehand wing, drawing multiple errors from the world number one. It is a testament to how the Frenchman is improving that Alcaraz had to summon a superhuman level to avoid the deciding set.
Alcaraz, though, did prevail and spoke about his mentality for winning after making his 55th ATP career quarter-final.
“Obviously, it’s a great number but to be honest I’m not thinking about the number of quarter-finals I’m doing, I want to be focused on the number of finals that I’m doing. That’s my mindset, that’s my goal.
“Hopefully this week I will add another final to my belt but really difficult matches ahead of me. Really excited and looking forward to playing them but it’s great to see myself with such great consistency.”
