California (Reuters)
Rafael Nadal defeated his young Spanish compatriot Carlos Alcaraz 6-4 4-6 6-3 to extend his winning streak to 20 matches and book his place in the Indian Wells Tennis Championships final.
Nadal will meet American Taylor Fritz in the final on Sunday in the California desert, where he will equal the Spaniard if he wins Novak Djokovic’s record of 37 Masters titles.
Fritz secured his place in a Masters final for the first time in his career, beating seventh-seeded Andrei Rublev 7-5 6-4, and will try to become the first American to win the title since Andre Agassi in 2001.
While Alcaraz produced a much better performance than his 6-1, 6-2 loss last year in his first match against his idol, Nadal has made it clear that he is not yet ready to leave the flag for his 18-year-old compatriot.
“I was playing really well in the beginning but it was very difficult to stop him with his amazing shots,” said Nadal, who will be playing in his fifth Indian Wells final. After that I can’t say I was in control because it is impossible to be in control against a player like him.
Alcaraz got the crowd excited when he broke 21-times Grand Slam champion Nadal to open the match with a stunning backhand winner.
But Nadal broke Alcaraz to win the impressive first set.
While Alcaraz took advantage of two chances to break his opponent’s serve, Nadal kept his Spanish compatriot under constant pressure, and had 17 break opportunities and succeeded in three of them.
In the second set, the two players competed with each other and faced strong winds on the field, and the referee asked the fans to hold on to their belongings so as not to disrupt the play.
Alcaraz put the crowd on tiptoe in the ninth game, which lasted 20 minutes and was decided when he took advantage of his seventh chance to break Nadal, then held on to equalize.
With the wind waning in the third set, the players’ performance rose, and Nadal narrowly edged out his brave opponent in the final set.
Nadal, as usual, refused to give up and broke his opponent’s serve to advance 5-4 and then held his serve and happily raised his arms to greet the crowd after his victory.
In the second set, the wind was crazy, Nadal said. It’s not fun to play in the wind, it’s sometimes a challenge and I can enjoy that.
“In terms of tennis, it was fine but in terms of stopping all the time, it wasn’t good.
Rublev entered the tournament after winning two consecutive titles in Marseille and Dubai, but his winning streak in 13 consecutive matches was interrupted in the California desert.
World number 20 Fritz made a strong start, breaking Rublev on his first chance to take a 3-0 lead.
The American looked completely in control as he served to decide the first set, and it was 5-3 when Rublev finally started to make his mark and broke his opponent’s serve.
But Fritz did not lose focus, breaking Rublev for the second time at 6-5, to avoid a tiebreak, and left his opponent screaming in anger as he looked up at the sky, after losing his first set of the tournament.
The second set witnessed a close confrontation in play from the baseline, which was expected from the players, both aged 24, but Fritz succeeded again in breaking his Russian opponent’s serve to decide the match when Rublev returned the ball into the net.
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