There were questions about how quickly Carlos Alcaraz would bounce back to top form, and he answered them on Wednesday with a strong performance in his second match at the ATP Finals in Turin.
A defeat would have left him practically out of the semi-finals and Alcaraz has responded to the pressure with a convincing victory over Andrey Rublev, 7-5, 6-2, in just 74 minutes. It will be on Friday, in his duel with another Russian, Daniil Medvedev, when a place in the penultimate round of the Masters event will be up for grabs.
“If I want to give myself a chance in this tournament, I have to play like today,” said the tennis player from El Palmar at the conclusion. It was precisely Medvedev who said that the Carlitos of today was not the same as a few months ago.
The version against Rublev was very close to the one that was seen to win at Wimbledon or to rise to the world number one after winning the US Open. In the opener with Alexander Zverev, that shot had a top speed of 117 kilometres per hour, 10 less than those reflected in the exhibition with the Muscovite.
On the fastest court on the calendar, the serves prevailed over the returns until the eleventh game. It was then that Alcaraz went into full court mode to win the second and third break points. He had missed the first and also the second. The third was his.
Rublev, a temperamental player, was about to lose his temper as he looked at his bench full of Spanish players: his coaches Fernando Vicente and Beto Martin and his agent Galo Blanco. He lost his nerve for good when he surrendered his serve in the first game of the continuation.
Juan Carlos Ferrero’s pupil, with serve peaks that reached 217 kilometres per hour, recovered the spark that had kept him at the top of the tennis world until September. He has now won 11 times this season against members of the top 10 and has won his first head-to-head with Rublev.
Rublev paid for it with his racket and his physique. And he repeatedly hit his left leg until he drew blood.
Alcaraz not only rejoins the Masters but also momentarily takes the lead in the ranking of points in Masters 1000 tournaments and ATP Finals.
There is a 20 million dollar bonus to be shared among the top 30 in that particular ranking.
Masters 1000 and ATP Finals 2023 points rankings
• Carlos Alcaraz: 3,485
• Daniil Medvedev: 3,385
• Jannik Sinner: 3.000
• Novak Djokovic: 2.470
• Andrey Rublev: 2.340
