Global Courant 2023-05-05 11:00:58
The Madrid Masters 1000 will play its two semifinals this Friday. The first, which will start at 11 in Argentina, will face the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz, top favorite and defending champion, with the Serbian Borna Coric, seeded 17th and 20th in the world. The second, scheduled for 3:00 p.m., will have two unexpected protagonists: the German Jan-Lennard Struff, who entered the draw as a lucky loser, and the Russian Aslan Karatsev, from the qualy.
Struff, who in the round of 16 had put an end to Pedro Cachín’s adventure in the Caja Mágica, gave the blow by beating Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, fifth in the quarterfinals, 7-6 (7-5), 5-7 and 6-3 in the quarterfinals. ranking, and added his second victory of the season (fifth of his career) against a top 5. A few weeks ago, he had defeated the Norwegian Casper Ruud, fourth in the ranking, in the round of 16 in Monte Carlo.
The German became the third lucky loser to reach the semifinals of a Masters 1000 in the history of this category (which began in 1990). The first was the Swedish Thomas Johansson, in Toronto 2004 (he lost to Roger Federer) and the second, the French Lucas Pouille, in Rome 2016 (he said goodbye to Andy Murray).
Karatsev put an end to the adventure of Chinese Zhang, one of the surprises of the tournament. Photo REUTERS/Juan Medina
Karatsev, meanwhile, won 7-6 (7-3) and 6-4 against the Chinese Zhizhen Zhang, one of the great revelations of the contest, and got into the top four of an event for the first time in his career of this level.
The Russian, 121st in the world, is the second player to emerge from the preliminary phase to reach the semifinals in the history of the Madrid tournament. The other was the Frenchman Fabrice Santoro, who in the 2002 edition, surprised Tommy Haas, the top seed, in the second round; in eighths, to David Nalbandian; and in the quarterfinals, Roger Federer, then seventh in the ranking. And he then fell to the Czech Jiri Novak.
In Madrid, Karatsev defeated Struff in the last round of qualifying and entered the main draw. The German entered shortly after, after Frenchman Constant Lestienne was out due to injury.
Now, the two now share a special record: because it will be the third time in a Masters 1000 in which two players who played in the previous phase of a tournament will play in the main draw semifinals.
In Paris 2004, Radek Stepanek and Max Mirnyi collided in one of the semis. The Czech prevailed in three sets and then lost the title to Marat Safin. And in Hamburg 2005, Richard Gasquet beat Christophe Rochus and got into the final, in which he was beaten by Federer.
Struff and Karatsev, likewise, are not complete strangers on the circuit and have already celebrated great victories in important tournaments in the past.
The German was able to lower Stan Wawrinka in the second round of the 2016 Paris Masters and Alexander Zverev, in the third round of Indian Wells 2019. Both the Swiss and his compatriot were third in the ranking at the time of those defeats. In August 2020 he reached 29th in the ranking and in 2021 he played the Munich final (the only one so far for him), which he lost to Nikoloz Basilashvili.
Last year, in Miami, he suffered a foot injury, which conditioned him for the rest of the season and led him to fall to the 168th place of the year. But he recovered physically and a few weeks ago, he was the surprise in Monte Carlo, where he also started in qualifying and reached the semis, thanks to that victory against Ruud. Then he lost to Andrey Rublev, who ended up crying champion. Located today in 65th in the ranking (he was 103rd when he closed the Madrid entry list, that’s why he had to play the previous phase), he will go for revenge this Friday.
Karatsev burst onto the circuit at the 2021 Australian Open at age 27. He passed the classification and advanced until he reached the semifinals, in which he lost to Novak Djokovic. He was the first player in history to reach that instance of a Grand Slam in his debut in that category. With confidence high, a few weeks later he won his first title, in Dubai. And in October, he added the second by winning in Moscow, before his people. That year he was also a finalist in Belgrade.
At the start of 2022, he lifted his third trophy in Sydney, with a win against Andy Murray, and rose to 14th in the rankings at the beginning of February. But then he lost consistency, did not return to good results and dropped to 59th place. The crisis worsened in this 2023. On April 17, he appeared 129th, his worst ranking since August 2020, and arrived in Madrid with a record of four wins and seven losses at the ATP level. But in the Caja Mágica he uncovered himself.
Alcaraz, for a special birthday present
On the day of his 20th birthday, Carlos Alcaraz will seek to enter the decisive stage of a Masters 1000 for the fourth time and take another step towards defending the title, which he won last year. The Spaniard, number two in the world, will face the Croatian Borna Coric, 20th in the ranking, who will go for his third final in this category.
The Murcian – who comes from defeating Russian Karen Khachanov, the tenth seed, 6-4, 7-5 in the quarterfinals – will play his sixth semifinals this season. He reached that instance in all the contests he played: Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Indian Wells, Miami, Barcelona and now in Madrid. He only lost one: in Miami, against Jannik Sinner. He has won three titles in this 2023, in the Argentine contest, the Californian desert Masters and in the Conde de Godó.
Carlitos is looking for his fourth crown at this level, after the ones he won in Miami and in the Caja Mágica last year and the one he won in Indian Wells in March.
Coric, 26, beat German Daniel Altmaier, another lucky loser, in the quarterfinals by a double 6-3, and extended his enormous week in the Spanish capital, in a tournament that was already the best of his 2023. It is that until this contest, the Croatian, current champion of Cincinnati, had not been able to add more than two wins in a row this season.
