It is a victory the Mercians will not forget. In more ways than one. First because he produced 1 hour 19 minutes of remarkable tennis, his biggest match of the season, all four corners of Stadium No. 1 crumble to a completely powerless, exhausted Alexander Zverev, who almost conceded his exit from the first break. . The match, which was 2-1 shortly after the restart on a double fault from the German.
It was a match like no other, as it was interrupted at 1-1 for about 1 hour 45 minutes, for an extremely rare and singular reason: an invasion of bees, whose swarm was under a spider-cam. The Most Revengers then came to “buzz” around the edge of the field, causing chaos in the court, even Carlos Alcaraz was bitten in the forehead in battle!
Returning from the game, after the warm-up was interrupted by the last of the little flying beasts who didn’t want to leave the stadium, while beekeeper-hero Lance waved his spray gun in all directions, Carlos Alcaraz forced his way in. The German, who nevertheless had two successes against the world No. 2 (in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open after the Masters), did not resist. And things got even quicker as the world No. 6’s first service ball was harmless against the Spaniard.
Alcaraz managed the wait well and hit the ball with incredible ferocity. The passing at the end of the race, the moral diagonal, the forehand along the flat line, the diabolical cushion: Alcaraz did it all and the Spaniard was the absolute master of the field.
Sinner – Alcaraz, expected semi-final
Zverev rattled off a winning sequence or two from time to time, but he was sorely lacking in free points and didn’t carry much weight on his serve on Thursday. Despite 78% of the first ball, Zverev took stock only once of the two (51% of points behind). In contrast, Alcaraz, already leading the game, was royal on his serve…losing only four points behind his first ball (27 out of 31)!
The second set was over in 38 minutes. A semi-final is expected on Saturday in Indian Wells between two of the young talents of world tennis, the champion of the Australian Open, Janic Siner (22 years old), unbeaten in 2024 with 16 consecutive successes, and Carlos Alcaraz (20). years old), Al Palmer’s nobleman.
(TagsToTranslate)David Lauriot
