On another day marked by rain, the Murcian unmasted the Italian, number 6 in the world, and met Fognini in the semifinals
Only the rain stops Carlos Alcaraz in Rio de Janeiro. The tournament is being a real madness because of the downpours that have been falling since Thursday in the Brazilian city. But the young Murcian player doesn’t even flinch. This Saturday he beat the Italian Matteo Berrettini (6-2, 2-6 and 6-2), the tournament’s main favorite and number 6 in the world, in a match in which he played great tennis in the first and second third set.
In the first quarter (6-2 for Alcaraz) the best of the tennis player from El Palmar could be seen, who embroidered the game and did not give options to a lost rival on the clay of the Jockey Club Brasileiro. In the second set, with 2-2, the Murcian made a couple of absurd mistakes and lost concentration, which was used by the transalpine to put one more gear and take that set on the fast track (2-6). It seemed that Berrettini was going to come back.
With 1-0 in favor of Juan Carlos Ferrero’s pupil in the third set, it rained again heavily in Rio and the game had to be stopped for almost two hours. At the restart, doubts forgotten, what we saw was again the best version of Alcaraz, who destroyed with his drop shots, his returns and his tremendous rights to a Berrettini who soon signed his surrender (6-2).
Alcaraz will face off in the semifinals with Italian Fabio Fognini, who defeated Argentine Fede Coria a few hours earlier (6-4, 6-2). The other semifinal measures tonight the Argentines Cerúndolo and Schwartzman. It was a crazy Saturday, very hot in the early afternoon, heavy rains later and humidity and high temperatures at night.
In addition, Alcaraz had played the round of 16 match against the Argentine Delbonis the previous morning, whom he ended up defeating quite easily (6-4 and 7-6 (1)) in a match that began on Thursday, but could not be resumed. during Friday and ended on Saturday. Meanwhile, Alcaraz learned this Saturday that his first rival in the Acapulco tournament will be the British Cameron Norrie.