Already dispossessed of his status as defending champion, Hubert Hurkacz heads into the locker room with sportsmanship. He points to Carlos Alcaraz, raises his thumb and applauses the effervescent young man who has just knocked him down (7-6(5) and 7-6(2) and reached his first Masters 1000 final, the Miami crowd enthusiastic about the talent, self-confidence and poise of the tennis player who can achieve a milestone for Spanish men’s tennis, which until now has been denied success in Florida.The Murcian will face this Sunday (7:00 p.m., #Vamos) with the Norwegian Casper Ruud , another first-timer who is going strong these days (6-4 and 6-1 against Francisco Cerúndolo) and who will have before him the difficult challenge of putting a stop to the whirlwind of the moment.
Alcaraz, 18 years and 333 days, is the second youngest finalist in the tournament’s history –behind Rafael Nadal, 18 and 304 in the 2005 edition– and the fifth youngest in a 1000, with the American Michael Chang at front thanks to his success in Toronto, 1990, 18 years and 157 days. The present belongs to the boy from El Palmar, who will try to achieve what was previously denied to Sergi Bruguera (1997), Carlos Moyà (2003), David Ferrer (2013) or Nadal himself, beaten in the episodes of 2005, 2008 , 2011, 2014 and 2017. Only Arantxa Sánchez Vicario (1992 and 1993) managed to capture Miami’s precious loot.
“I’m very excited right now, it’s something you’ve dreamed of since you were little. I’m going to approach the final as if it were the first round, or at least I’m going to try to hide my nerves. I am going to enjoy it”, anticipated the winner, who has already recorded six wins against top-10 and 50 on the ATP circuit, and that with the latter he secured 12th place on the list with the option of moving up to eleventh. “He understands the game very well. He has a prodigious mentality and chooses perfectly when to take each shot. I want to take revenge”, announced Ruud, defeated last year in the Marbella arena in the only precedent.
If in the previous round he managed to untangle a duel plagued with meanders, Alcaraz ran into a rectilinear script this time, without cheating or cardboard. He is not fooling Hurkacz, an open book, a limited catalog tennis player who shines in what he knows how to do, but who squeaks as soon as the exchange demands more than four, five or six balls. That way he tried to confuse the Spanish, but he found one refusal after another; the Pole (25 years old, 10th in the world) was not in the least interested in debating, so each point was settled in a jiffy, concentrated format. No friction. A first set shot.
Alcaraz’s legs felt heavier than necessary due to the overexertion of the previous day, and Hurkacz was very slow in reacting. He arms the Murcian in a seen and not seen, and his rival had a hard time reading each ball and suffered hunting for the drop. With one of them the one from El Palmar avoided the first risk situation; the Pole replied with the same bluntness when he encountered the first two fires, but in his own way: first he fired a ace and then a winner, and since the story was trigger-happy and sparky, they both agreed that it was appropriate to risk it on the luck (or expertise) of the tie-breaker.
Occupation and viscerality
In that swampy terrain, Alcaraz traced the dynamics of the resolution against Kemanovic in the quarters. He made things very difficult for him, 3-5 down, but he repeated a sequence of four consecutive points and with a sharp return at the feet of the rival, he tilted the partial in his favor. Astute the boy in that ball, a show of trade inappropriate for another age. Full-fledged scam. He also knows how to compete bravely the Murcian, who once again had the favor of the stands; applauded here and there because his youth and the spectacular nature of his game adds a visceral component to the games.
Connect with the public, hook, fight each and every one of the balls; fair play ahead, and if he has to rectify the referee because Hurkacz has reached the ball before the second bounce, he does it; he runs for all and stretches like chewing gum in pursuit of the short volley – nod to a certain Novak Djokovic –, and when he has to attack he does it with everything, to the last consequences, determined and hungry after 2h 02m of whiplash
If the opponent – four trophies, all four on hard court – tries to impose his stamp on the net, 19 hits in 27 approaches the Pole, he (14/20) also likes to show his fang in the delicate territory of the mesh; if the story of the day is about claws, he keeps the pulse (23-22 in winners); and if he has to endure a downpour of 13 aces, he grits his teeth and puts up the shield. Thus he disrupted two breaking balls in the final stretch, with 5-5, and thus, with courage, guts and the craft of veterans, he put the tie-breaker which led him to clash with Ruud, without forgetting his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, whose father recently passed away: “This victory is yours, Juanki”.
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