Carlos Alcaraz, double defender of the title in Madrid, bordered on elimination against the German Jan-Lennard Struff, whom he finally beat 6-3, 6-7 (5) and 7-6 (4) in a match full of errors and of genius on the part of both.
The champion and the 2023 finalist met again a year after the Spaniard won the title match (6-4, 3-6 and 6-3) and Alcaraz, second seed, repeated his victory in three sets, but with two tiebreakers, after two hours and 52 minutes.
His opponent in the quarterfinals will be the Russian Andrey Rublev, seventh seed, who beat the Dutch Tallon Griekspoor in the round of 16 by 6-2, 6-4.
Alcaraz won the game several times and gave away his advantage several times. He played a poor tiebreaker in the second set and wasted four match points in the third. But his great class came to the rescue, although he was kept waiting.
The past year since the 2023 final was little time for the two-time title winner to forget what an uncomfortable opponent the German is.
Struff showed it right away, when he forced Alcaraz to come back from 15-40 down to take the third game. With daring climbs to the net from the first moment to shorten the points. But the Spaniard found a way to pass him and make him rethink his strategy.
The first break came in the sixth game and yet Alcaraz’s next two serves were not an easy task. Struff dodged two set points before giving up the set.
An excellent first game after the rest put Alcaraz in the lead in the second set. Struff, winner in Munich two weeks ago, was drawn into dizzying exchanges that almost always ended with the El Palmar player hitting the corner.
Two games in a row from Struff, who took advantage of the slightest crack in Alcaraz’s tennis, balanced the set again.
At 4-4, Alcaraz threw a game away with four consecutive errors. He couldn’t fail with his next serve and was about to do so (30-30), with some unnecessary drop, but he fixed it with his serve and the set went to the tiebreaker.
The German served with rage and once again put on a show at the net (6-3). A Struff serve called out and that the ‘hawk eye’ approved definitively handed the set to the 2023 finalist.
Alcaraz, who returned to play with his right arm protected with a sleeve, saw the time had come to not spare his strength with his right hand. Aware of the mistakes made in the previous set, he adjusted but did not eliminate the risks, outlined the shots and tried to keep Struff away from the net.
The ‘break’ came at 3-1 and the danger reappeared with a break ball at 4-2 and reappeared again when Alcaraz served to win, in a game to forget: the Spaniard wasted four match points. A double fault, several right hands, a bad drop shot… Alcaraz’s mistakes came at the most inopportune moment.
The Spaniard’s victory became a reality in a new tiebreaker with the same dance of errors. From 3-0 in Alcaraz it went to 4-3 in Struff. That’s as far as the German came, who was very close to winning. But Alcaraz was accompanied by his tennis in the final moment.
With his new victory, he tied Rafael Nadal’s record of 14 in a row in Madrid.
