Alcaraz revives in time to save his Madrid debut

Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz came back (2-6, 6-4, 6-2) to the Finn Emil Ruusuvuori overcome this Friday his debut in Mutua Madrid Open, the fourth Masters 1,000 of the season, a good fear for the start of the defense of the title that lists him with the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in the third round.

The local idol, in the role of the absent Rafa Nadal, has been slowly enjoying himself on Manolo Santana Court, a venue that has measured the Murcian’s progress over the past two years like few others. In 2021, he played his first match at the Masters 1000, and won last year still and Djokovic premiering the world’s top 10 with the title.

Phenomenon Alcaraz, champion of 9 tournaments (among them three Masters 1000 and one US Open), continues to shine at almost 20 years old, despite some physical problems, with a record of 24-2 in 2023. The 24th had a dose of uncertainty that no one expected, but Ruusuvuori deserved at least some benefit of the doubt as he seemed capable of ringing.

The Finn, who beat the Spaniard in the only precedent between the two in 2021 in Miami, took away like Djokovic and won 90% of his first serve points until deep into the second set. The serve did not help Alcaraz, nor did his nerves, also missing a dozen forehands. With plenty of confidence, Ruusuvuori saw 1-4.

They looked at each other in the stands, and the Finn closed the door on the Spanish epic by winning the first set from the fourth attempt (2-6). Alcaraz, frustrated like few times, was furious at his opponent’s defense and the balls that narrowly eluded him, to the extent that he threw the racket at 2-3.

With 2-6, 2-3 and 15-40, another moment came for the epic, which still fell out. The one from El Palmar saved five balls break and lit the fuse for Manolo Santana to find his first break points of the match. The second was used by the local idol, in addition to the stormy part of the tournament so far, united players and fans, for 4-3. Murcian found the winning points and Ruusuvuori reduced his repertoire to see himself in a very different third set.

Alcaraz began to enjoy himself, smiling with expected punches, as in the sentence 4-1, fist up. The reigning champion in Madrid, looking to repeat the title as he did in Barcelona last week, found time to continue his performance in the capital, to continue the recovery of the world number one, with the appointment now against Dimitrov who is 7-6 (6), 7-6(2) beat France’s Gregoire Barrere.