Sunday 22 / December / 2024
Madrid: Nineteen-year-old Carlos Alcaraz notched the biggest win of his career on Friday when he defeated compatriot Rafael Nadal at the Madrid Open 2022.
After the 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 victory in a topsy-turvy clash in the Spanish capital, the teenager will now face another tennis legend in World No. 1 Novak Djokovic. This will be a maiden clash between Carlos and the Serb. Alcaraz withstood a trademark Nadal fightback and a nasty second-set fall on the Madrid clay to prevail in an absorbing two-hour, 29-minute encounter.
"It means a lot to me," said Alcaraz after the match as per atptour.com. "All the hard work that I put in every day pays off today. To beat Rafa, to beat the best player in history on clay, it means a lot to me."
The win takes Alcaraz to his third Masters 1000 semi-final and extends his winning streak against Top 10 opponents to five.
Earlier in the day, Novak Djokovic maintained the quest for his first title of the season as he cruised past Pole Hubert Hurkacz 6-3, 6-4 to reach his seventh Madrid Open semi-final.
The World No. 1 struck the ball with relentless depth, accuracy and power as he controlled points with his watertight groundstrokes to advance after 78 minutes and improve his perfect ATP head-to-head series record against Hurkacz to 4-0.
