Spanish tennis player World number two Carlos Alcaraz beat Italian Fabio Fognini 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-4 this Thursday. (86 ATP) and advanced to the quarterfinals after a tough duel between the Europeans at the Rio de Janeiro Open, the only ATP 500 tournament in South America, where he won the title last year. The 19-year-old tennis player from Murcia, Brazil’s first favourite, struggled against the losing Italian in the first set due to mistakes in the basic games, but from the second set he showed his best tennis ever. completely dominated. The until recently world number one and Argentine Open champion on Sunday finally took advantage of it after taking a four-month hiatus due to injury. Torsion in ankle from San Remo when he lost 4-1 in the second set and this bothered him for the rest of the match, which lasted two hours and 47 minutes.
This was the second match between the two tennis players. In the first, also last year in Rio de Janeiro, Alcaraz won the semifinals of the Brazilian tournament 6-2, 7-5. The current US Open champion thus confirmed his hegemony over Fognini, 35, who was a finalist at the 2015 Rio Open after beating Rafael Nadal in the semifinals. in the quarterfinals The Spaniard will have to face the winner of the duel between Serbian Laslo Djere (57 ATP), who won the 2018 Rio de Janeiro champion, and Dusan Lajovic on Friday. (80 ATP) eliminated in the first round the fifth favorite Argentinean Diego Schwartzman, who won the 2018 Brazilian championship.
Alcaraz broke the Italians’ first serve in the first set and quickly took a 3-1 lead, but Fognini countered the same and crossed the line, narrowing the lead to 3-2. On the power point, Murcian blocked the Italian’s use of his serve to equalize and took a partial 5-2 lead after breaking and confirming his own serve. The San Remo man, however, rallied to break three consecutive serves from the Spaniard, came back and took a partial advantage of 6-5. While Fognini was celebrating his victory in the first set, the world number two showed vitality and climbed the net to break his opponent’s serve, preventing him from winning and drawing 6-6. In the tiebreak, Murcian had a 4-2 advantage but failed in the base games, allowing the Italian to win 7-5 and win the first round 7-6.
Alcaraz took advantage of the break to regain his concentration and when he returned to the field for the second round, he quickly broke Fognini’s first two serves and confirmed his own serve to take a 4-0 lead. The Italian player immediately suffered a slight sprain in his ankle while trying to react to the ball that the Spaniard dropped close to the net, and although he did not seek medical attention, the decline in his performance was evident from then on. . Alcaraz only needed to approve their services. win the second set 6-2 and connect the game.
In the third set, still powered by his good momentum and showing his strength and vitality, the Spanish player broke Fognini’s first two serves and opened the partial 3-1 gap he held until the end. win the sleeve 6-4.
Other tennis players who have secured a place in the quarterfinals in Rio include Brazil’s second favourite, England’s Cameron Norrie (13 ATP); Spaniards Albert Ramos (47 ATP) and Bernabé Zapata (63 ATP), Argentine Sebastián Báez (35 ATP), Chilean Nicolás Jarry (139 ATP) and Bolivian Hugo Dellien (111 ATP).