Spanish Carlos Alcaraz touched a miracle this Friday in Cincinnati, when They came back from 7-6 and 4-1 in the second set, but lost to England’s Cameron Norrie 7-6 (4), 6-7 (4) and 6-4. and bid farewell to the Cincinnati tournament in the quarterfinals. With a spectacular response, Alcaraz pushed the third set and made the lead 3-1, but after three hours and four minutes of battle, he surrendered for the first time in four duels against the Briton.

Despite the defeat, Alcaraz left the center court of the Lindner Family Tennis Center, which was acclaimed by the locals, satisfied with a spectacular high-level match that lacked clarity to complete the comeback.

It’s his fourth defeat of the season for Alcaraz at the Masters 1000, with 17 victories that allow him to be crowned in Miami and Madrid and become the only player to win more than one tournament in this category in 2022. Norrie has advanced to the second semi-final of his career at number 11 and will face Croatia’s Borna Coric for the final this Saturday.

Opportunities

Alcaraz got off to a positive start, keeping his serve at zero and taking four break balls in Norrie’s first two serve times before he could take advantage of them. Murcian played good tennis with excellent volleys and low kicks, but his match was complicated by a first set tiebreak when Norrie ramped up his aggression and managed to quickly escape 3-0 and went 3-3 after Alcaraz’s reaction. managed to win the first quarter 7-4. A set was leaving him where he had wasted so many opportunities to gain an advantage, and Alcaraz paid the price on a psychological level. He wanted to throw his racket to the ground, but managed to stop himself, but his gestures showed disappointment.

As if that wasn’t enough, he couldn’t make the three attacking balls he made in the first match of the second set. The loud noise of fireworks at a nearby amusement park every Friday at 10 pm undoubtedly did not help the concentration of either player. Murcian paid for the moment of surprise, and Norrie took advantage of it to take a break in game four, which paved the way for him. 4-1 leaving Alcaraz on the ropes.

come back

Unmistakably, he took off his competitive spirit and recovered the break after the break and returned to the game with a reaction that caused the audience to applaud. Alcaraz gradually increased the level of his blows and regained his senses. throw a great playoff 7-4 even in spades.

He continued to delight the audience with points at the highest athletic and technical level, such as the score that allowed him to come out of a delicate 40-40 break with a score of 1-1 in the light. And it grew until he was sealed in game four with a strong forehand against Norrie’s second serve, who made it 3-1 and seemed to pave the way to the semifinals.

concentration drop

But soon after he went out and could not do with maximum concentrationA mistake that Norrie punished with a ‘timeout’ which once again changed the inertia of the match. Alcaraz began to pay for the pressure and reiterated his service, this time definitively, despite returning from 0-40 to 4-4 in the light. Norrie did not fail his serve and ended the duel 6-4. At that moment, Alcaraz was frustrated, threw a ball from the central court and received the first sanction from the judge.

In this way, the Murcian tournament ended ten days before the start of the United States Open. The other semi-finals will be played by the world’s number 1 Russian Daniil Medvedev and the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, who defeated American Taylor Fritz and John Isner..