Spanish carlos alcarazworld number one, was against the ropes this Friday but back in Australia Max Purcell And won by 4-6, 6-3 and 6-4 to advance to the semi-finals for the first time Cincinnati Masters 1,000here Pole will face Hubert Hurkacz.

He needs to draw his competitive spirit to Alcaraz in Cincinnati, where he’s won so far. three battles of high technical and mental intensity. He won all three games in three sets against Australia. jordan thompsonAmerican Tommy Paul and Purcellbut he brought out his tennis best in decisive moments and is now two games away from his fifth Masters 1,000 of his career.

Alcaraz found itself in a familiar situation. Last year, at the same circuit and in this round, he was ahead of the British Cameron Norrie by a break. He failed to take advantage of this and was eliminated. This year, adding two more ‘big’s to its credit and being number one in the world, didn’t make the same mistake. He waited for his opportunity and this time sealed his semi-final ticket.

Wonderful Max Purcell

Murcian celebrated in style. Because he had an opponent that he had never met before and played very well. tennis. He’s been racing on Cincinnati concrete for a week, passing two qualifying rounds and scoring two wins over Casper Ruud of Norway and Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland on his way to his first ATP 1,000 quarterfinals. The bright level shown this Friday is far from the 70th place it occupies in the world rankings.

Alcaraz, who won six titles with icing on the crown at Wimbledon this year, had a broken ball on Purcell’s first serve, but was unable to capitalize on it and then faced a confident opponent.

Murcian fought for points but Purcell was able to address him by his first name without fear of prolonging the talks.. Murcian never scored more than two points against Purcell’s serve in the remainder of the first set. The Oceanic player, on the other hand, was aggressive towards the others and took one good timeout in game seven, winning the first set 6-4.

Alcaraz, upstream

Alcaraz had to fight the current once again. He did so in Toronto last week to beat Hurkacz, and in the same Cincinnati against Australia’s Jordan Thompson and Tommy Paul, who received positive winds on Tuesday and Thursday after equalizing the game in the second set and forcing third.

Somehow comfortable in the toughest moments Alcaraz. He knew how to keep his cool and started the second set with a hiatus on Purcell’s first turn, serving to escape 3-0 at just twelve minutes. Murcian cranked up the engine revs and leveled the shootout 6-3 with three included serve winners and quality drop shots.

Purcell apparently paid for the cargo. He made two double mistakes in a row in his first serve game and Alcaraz punished him with a massive backlash, and a ‘let’s go’ shout at him stopped him.

The Australian player also accepted three ‘intermediate’ balls with a score of 0-2, but saved them and at one point changed the date of the duel again. He took back the ‘break’ and chained three games in a row to take the lead and open a new game.

The balance was held until 4-4. Purcell tied two great first serves, but Alcaraz responded to both and this time signed a ‘time out’ to zero for sure.

He won the match by voiding the last timeout ball in Purcell’s favor and After a tremendous battle of two hours and eleven minutes, he was able to unleash his happiness.

Alcaraz will face Hurkacz this Saturday for a place in the final on Sunday. He earned two precedents against Pole, including last week in Toronto, where he returned to win in three sets. Murcian also beat him in the semifinals where he would win his first Masters 1,000 in Miami 2022.