Carlos Alcaraz captured his first title since Doha in February when he defeated Jiri Lehecka 7-6(4), 6-4 in the Japan Open final on Tuesday afternoon. Alcaraz wrapped up a successful title defense after one hour and 36 minutes.
The third-ranked Spaniard dropped his opening service game of the match and also trailed 4-2 in the first-set tiebreaker, but he consistently raised his level when necessary.
“Obviously a lot of negative thoughts come to your mind,” Alcaraz said of being out for four months earlier this year due to a wrist injury. “If you are going to come back healthy, if you are going to come back the same as I was before. If I will be able to hit the ball normally without pain at all. A lot of thoughts came to my mind, but I tried to put those thoughts away all the time.
“My team and I knew that if I came back, I was going to feel 100 percent. So I just have to go full for every shot, every ball, and I trust [my team], I trust myself, and it worked out.”
Novak Djokovic remained perfect at the China Open, winning his seventh title in seven trips to the tournament. The 39-year-old serve improved to 34-0 lifetime in Beijing when he got a retirement from Alex de Minaur early in the second set on Tuesday evening. Djokovic led 7-6(3), 0-1 at the time.
Amazingly, the last three matches of this event failed to be completed. In the semis, Hubert Hurkacz retired against De Minaur and Daniil Medvedev was defaulted against Djokovic.
“It’s a bit of a strange feeling, to be honest,” the 24-time Grand Slam champion explained. “I want to celebrate, because I’ve played one of the best weeks in the last couple of years. At the same time, he [De Minaur] retired at the beginning of the second, so it doesn’t feel right to jump around and be joyful. But deep inside, I’m very proud of this achievement.”
wild last 2 days in Beijing
There’s a saying that trouble comes in threes.
The semis went the way we would have expected despite the abbreviations. The final would have been much more interesting if de Minaur hadn’t gotten hurt. Both players playing superbly and a close contest, and probably would have gone to three, outcome not necessarily Djokovic given the standard de Minaur was playing.
Interesting about the first set: Djokovic wasn’t serving quite his usual standard in terms of first serves in. De Minaur won just one point less on serve at 30 to 31 but Djokovic won twice the return points at 14 to 7. Djokovic won all his 3 net points; de Minaur hit over twice the amount of winners at 16 to 6, but also had nearly twice the unforced errors at 19 to 10. Sizzling highlights reel, wonderful set.
Well done Alcaraz! Had a slow start in Set 1 but came back from it. Or maybe Lehecka dropped his starting level.
Well done Carlos