Carlos Alcaraz spent the vast majority of his two hours and 23 minutes at the office on Friday playing from behind, but he eventually came out on top in his quarterfinal contest at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters.
Alcaraz dug deep to defeat Arthur Fils 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 after coming close to a straight-set defeat and also facing a deficit in the third. Fils led 0-40 on his opponent’s serve at 5-5 in the second and held a 3-1 advantage in the third. However, Alcaraz won nine of the last 10 points in the second set and also won the final five games of the match.
“I just wanted to stay strong and wait for my chances,” Alcaraz explained. “I think his level is high right now and he puts a lot of pressure on his opponents. Today I could feel it but in some moments he just made a few mistakes and I tried to make the most of those points and wait for my chances. The second set I saved those break points and then made the only break point I had that set.
“In the third set I was just trying to play good tennis. When I was a break down I just tried to keep going and play aggressively and be strong mentally and physically.”
Fils was playing in his third consecutive Masters 1000 quarterfinal, but the 20-year-old Frenchman once again fell short of the semis–just as he did in Indian Wells and Miami.
It will be an all-Spanish showdown for Alcaraz on semifinal Saturday, as his result was preceded by Alejandro Davidovich Fokina’s 6-3, 6-2 rout of Alexei Popyrin. A runner-up in Delray Beach and Acapulco, Davidovich Fokina is up to No. 8 in the live race to Turin.
nice one, Carlos
Great matchup we will see more of. Fils with a bit more experience probably won that.
yep, Fils probably should have won