The streak of nine consecutive victories of Carlos Alcaraz came to an end this Thursday in the quarterfinals of the Miami Open, in which the Murcian crashed before a monumental Grigor Dimitrov (6-2 y 6-4).
Alcaraz, number two in the world ranking and recent Indian Wells champion, could not against the solid and powerful tennis of a Dimitrov (n.12) that will be played this Friday in the semifinals against the German Alexander Zverev.
The Murcian had won three of the previous four with Dimitrov, champion this year in Brisbane, but He gave up after one hour and 32 minutes of play and closed his American tour in the quarterfinals after winning his fifth 1,000 title two weeks ago in the Californian desert of Indian Wells.
Alcaraz and Dimitrov put on a show on Miami’s center court, which was attended by past and present sports stars such as the former boxer Mike Tyson, the Spanish footballer Sergio Busquets or the basketball player Jimmy Butler.
He came from a hard-fought qualification achieved in the third set tiebreaker against the Polish Hubert Hurkacz, but on the rest day helped Dimitrov regain energy and his way of approaching the game was unbeatable.
Solid, concentrated, deep with his forehand and backhand and forceful with the serve, Dimitrov got a break to 30 in the second game and got out of trouble by canceling four breaking points against Alcaraz to take a quick 3-0 lead.
The Murcian tried to subtract by placing himself far off the court to better manage the Bulgarian’s power and tried to force with his serve. He hit a winning serve at 210 kilometers per hour, but Dimitrov addressed him with authority from the first point, putting him in considerable trouble. The anticipated backhand response in the first point to the Murcian serve was the clearest warning.
Even in the fourth game, with Alcaraz ahead 40-0, Dimitrov took him to 40-all before the Murcian could take the game‘. It was not enough and the Bulgarian sealed the set with a powerful backhand to make it 6-2 in 49 minutes.
I already knew what it was like to get out of very complicated moments in Alcaraz. He did it in Indian Wells after losing the first set of the semifinal 6-1 against the Italian Jannik Sinner and also in the final with the Russian Daniil Medvedev, when came back from 0-3 in the first set to make his way to the title.
But Dimitrov did not stop stepping on the accelerator. If possible, He increased the level of his blows and signed an impressive right hand intern that gave him the 3-1 break.
Alcaraz couldn’t find a way to respond. During a break he sought help from his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero and asked him, with frustration, where he had to place himself in his opinion to subtract.
With his back against the wall, the Murcian responded with rage, took advantage of Dimitrov’s first moment of slight decline, and took ten of eleven points to achieve the first break of your match and put the second set back in balance at 4-4.
It was an apparent change of inertia that was not completed, because Dimitrov held serve for 5-4 and he won two match points with Alcaraz on serve. The first one was enough for him and secured his place in the semifinals.
The other semifinal will be played by the Italian Jannik Sinner and the Russian Daniil Medvedevin the reissue of the 2023 final, won by the second.