After winning the Wimbledon tournament a month ago and after falling for the Hopman Cup, where Spain went unnoticed, Carlos Alcaraz has returned to what is important and has done so with good news. The Murcian achieved the first victory of his career in Canada by beating the American Ben Shelton (6-3 and 7-6 (3)) and advances in the Canadian tournament, where he can further establish his status as number one.
Alcaraz, who had not competed on concrete since the Miami semifinals four months ago, noticed the competitive break in the early stages, especially in a first game in which he had to raise a 15-40 and an additional ‘break’ ball that would have The partial against Shelton was very complicated. The American, 20 years old and number 41 in the world, made himself known at the last Australian Open, when he reached the quarterfinals taking advantage of a very friendly draw. Since then, the left-handed server has not produced any notable results and has barely won six games on tour, but the danger of his serve is always there.
With a game that is slightly reminiscent, by height and movements, of Milos Raonic, Shelton believed it until the fourth game, when Alcaraz, already established and with the rust removed from him, took advantage of his third breaking ball to amass an advantage that was not He lost the entire set.
With the set in his pocket, the game already seemed like a piece of cake, and that is that Shelton has not come back a set against from Australia, already in the distant January. However, the serves took center stage in Toronto and there was a succession of twelve consecutive services without a single ‘break’ ball. Result? Tiebreaker that could have hindered Alcaraz’s clean advance in Canada.
Shelton won the first point, but his options ended there, Alcaraz took the next four, now with more fang than the rest and with more success and fastened the thirteenth consecutive victory of the season and the first of his career in Canada, after that last year he gave in his debut against the American Tommy Paul.
Therefore, each victory in Toronto means opening up more of the lead in the standings with Novak Djokovic, who declined to play this Masters 1,000 to rest. Alcaraz currently has 9,305 points, compared to the Serbian’s 8,795, so if he reached the final, he would make sure he reached the US Open as number one in the world.
Alcaraz’s next rival will be the Polish Hubert Hurkacz, whom he already faced in the semifinals in Miami last year, with victory for the Spaniard in two tiebreakers. Hurkacz arrives after beating Alexander Bublik and Miomir Kecmanovic.
In the rest of the tournament, the triumph of Alejandro Davidovich against Alexander Zverev (6-1 and 6-2) stands out. The man from Malaga will face the Norwegian Casper Ruud, third seed, for a place in the quarterfinals.
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