Carlos Alcaraz comes out on top against Jan-Lennard Struff and reaches the quarters of the Masters 1000 in Madrid

This Round of 16 was a replay of last year’s final where Carlos Alcaraz won in three sets against Jan-Lennard Struff (34), in good form at the moment on ocher since winning the ATP 250 in Munich ten days ago against Taylor Fritz. . The Spaniard, injured in his right arm, had not played on clay before arriving in Madrid.

The first set was calmly completed by the world number 3 who never gave the impression of forcing, confirming his break in the seventh game to take the lead after 46 minutes (6-3), varying the effects and speeds that gave Struff is dizzy. .

With the sun flooding the Manolo Santana court, he made another break at the start of the second set which the German giant (1.93m) immediately filled with a reflex return of serve (2-2). The two men did not let go until the tie-break, Struff distinguished himself until then, once again, with a series of dazzling returns that left the Spaniard standing on the spot.

Alcaraz pushed to the third set

Struff broke away at 5-3 on a well-struck subdued backhand volley and offered himself three level points in one set everywhere, saved by the Spaniard. At 6-5, an ace from the German on the “T”, validated by the hawk eye, gave him the second set after 58 minutes.

In the third set, the question of whether Struff would keep up the tempo by maintaining especially the quality of the return of the serve was costly in flux. The first game was won – handily – by Alcaraz who scared his supporters by playing a bit too much cat and mouse (drop shots, clipped forehands), as if intoxicated by his own playful genius.

A three forehand from the German offered a break point converted by Alcaraz on a foul from his opponent on the volley for a 3-1 lead. Break confirmed on an uncrossed backhand volley from Alcaraz placed in the corner of the court to lead 4-1, greeted by a ola from the crowd, with the Spaniard participating with a smile on his face.

Five match points are needed

This final round really offered tennis at a very high level, Alcaraz’s bluff shots rivaling the German’s striking on serve (10 aces in the match) in a bullfighting atmosphere. At 5-3, the Murcian offered himself four match points which he failed to convert, even letting his opponent break him to return to 4-5 and then 5-5 on serve.

Another ola started at 6-5 for the Spanish champions with footballer Raul, who stood to applaud his young compatriot, but the German threw mines that ended with titanic bangs.

The match was to be replayed in a tie-break, where Alcaraz called for crowd support and came away 3-0 with two serves to follow, but he recovered his mini-break and allowed Struff to get back on level terms. The crazy shots (37 winners for Alcaraz in the end, 31 for the opponent) followed one after the other, especially a winning lob on the serve volley from Struff, which gave Alcaraz a fifth match point. It would be the right one, the Spaniard swinging a forehand mine into the feet of his opponent on serve.