Without doing his best tennis and despite having a bad day at the office, Carlos Alcaraz was able to beat Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert at the Masters 1,000 in Paris., one of the best doubles players in the world, who made it very difficult thanks to the main virtues that he treasures, the serve and the volley. Even so, the 18-year-old from Murcia went back (6-7 (4), 7-6 (2) and 7-5 in 2h: 53) And that says a lot about the level he is at now, which allows him to solve stuck games like this by playing regular. He will have to do much better if he wants to beat on Wednesday (not before 17:00, #Vamos or Movistar Deportes) the Italian Jannik Sinner, who did his homework and did not miss the match of his next rival. It will be a NextGen duel unprecedented, which could be repeated next week in Milan, at the U21 Masters.
“The hardest thing has been to stay focused on a home player,” said the kid., which appeared for the first time in the tournament after being a semifinalist in Vienna, in its first indoor competition. “It’s been a great year for me and I feel comfortable playing here,” he added.
Battle-tested 🤺@ alcarazcarlos03 comes back from the brink to defeat Herbert 6-7 (4) 7-6 (2) 7-5 and reach R2 in Paris!#RolexParisMasters pic.twitter.com/yLGc58AeMC
– Tennis TV (@TennisTV) November 2, 2021
The game was not at all easy for Alcaraz, who perhaps expected less resistance from Herbert, a winner of Grand Slams in pairs but with obvious deficiencies to compete individually (he is the 99th in the world), such as the lack of a final blow. In fact, the Spanish clearly surpassed him in winners (40-19). On the contrary, the Frenchman, cheered by the Parisian public, handled himself with great confidence, with only 16 unforced errors. That was why things got complicated for Charly, who shot his failures until he was 42. That is why he had to row a lot when he had the first on track with 4-2 and serve. He lost the lead and later the set in a loose tiebreaker on his part.
Action and reaction
Luckily, the one who played in the second set was much looser and more confident. There were no breaks and in the luck of the tie-break Alcaraz resolved a 0-2 situation with seven points in a row. He needed to put the icing on the comeback. And he laid the foundations well with another 4-2. But the same thing happened again as in the first set. And when the duel seemed doomed to a new tiebreaker, Herbert became entangled, committed two double faults and handed the victory to his rival.
Results, tables and calendar.