After coming from behind to defeat Casper Ruud in Tokyo, world number one Carlos Alcaraz will face Taylor Fritz in the Japan Open final.
The Spaniard defeated the Dane 33-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the first set he has lost so far in the tournament.
Alcaraz won his 66th championship match with Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic, making him the fourth man to reach nine ATP finals in a row.
The six-time Grand Slam champion was upset about his first set performance despite winning.
In the first set, Alcaraz said, “I had a lot of chances.”
If I’m not mistaken, I had four break points. I just wanted to be more optimistic than the first set because it’s all about the details.
As he took charge of the match, Alcaraz made 20 of his 24 points on his serve in the second set after making 15 unforced errors.
The six-time Grand Slam champion has been struggling with an ankle issue since his tournament debut against Sebastian Baez, but there was little evidence of it.
In the other semi-final, second seed Fritz defeated compatriot Jenson Brooksby 6-4 6-3 to beat Alcaraz in the Laver Cup last week.
Alcaraz referred to Fritz as “I know he’s playing great tennis right now.”
I’m looking forward to it because it’s another challenge.
In his first hard-court final of the year, the American reached with 13 aces.
I did a fantastic job, Fritz said.
“First serves and spots are available.” He was really outplaying me from the beginning, like in any game where I didn’t hit three aces.
related subjects
- Tennis
Source: BBC
Leave a Reply