AmericaCarlos Alcaraz defeated Casper Ruud 7-5, 6-4 in the Miami Open final on April 3, becoming the third youngest player in Masters 1000 history.
At the age of 18 and 333 days, Alcaraz is the youngest player to win the title in 37 years of Miami Open history. Rafael Nadal was in the final of this tournament in 2005 at the age of 18, but lost Roger Federer. Alcaraz is the third youngest player to win the Masters 1000, after 283 events since 1990. Before Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic was the youngest tennis player to win the title in Miami, in 2007 at the age of 19. Alcaraz will be number 11 in the world when ATP updates the scoreboard today.
Only Michael Chang (Toronto 1990) and Rafael Nadal (Monte Carlo 2005) were younger than Alcaraz when they won the Masters 1000. Photo: ATP
Alcaraz was under pressure at the start of the biggest game of his career, although coach Juan Carlos Ferrero was able to fly to Miami after his father’s funeral. Alcaraz lost the first serve and let Casper Ruud lead 3-0. But Ruud, who was also a first-time Masters 1000 finalist, didn’t hold the edge as Alcaraz came back strong in the second half of the first set. The Spaniard continuously cornered the ball with strong and dangerous strokes. Diverse playstyle, with a combination of short ball and attacking net, helped Alcaraz win a game of catch to equalize 4-4. He took advantage of another break-point in game 11, thanks to Ruud’s misses, and ended the set with a 7-5 victory.
The situation reversed in the second set, when Ruud – who also practiced at Nadal’s academy – lost the rhythm of the game. Pressure from juniors caused the Norwegian player to repeatedly hit himself. He faced four break-points in his first two serves and saved only twice. Losing two serve games early puts Ruud at a disadvantage. He earned six break-points in game four, and took advantage of one. But the two-game gap was still maintained by Alcaraz after that. The Spaniard lost only two points in his last three serve games, before winning the set 6-4.
Hard Rock spectators witnessed many quality forehands from two players. Ruud has forehand winners reaching 145 km/h, while Alcaraz’s most powerful shot is 165 km/h. The two players gave each other many gestures of admiration after each beautiful ball.
“I know Casper is an unbelievable player,” Alcaraz said after the match. “He has strong forehands and I just tried to attack his backhand. I wanted him to not be able to impose the ball so I tried to hit deep into the back. That was the key to my game. this”.
Alcaraz won all three ATP finals, following the ATP Finals NextGen and Rio Open titles. He is the first Spaniard to win the Miami Open, after eight finals. Nadal has lost five finals here, Carlos Moya lost in 2003 and David Ferrer lost in 2013.
Nhan Dat
at Blogtuan.info – Source: vnexpress.net – Read the original article here
