The top-half semifinal is set at the Cincinnati Masters, with world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz taking on big-serving Pole Hubert Hurkacz. They faced each other last week in Toronto and the match went to a third-set tiebreaker.
Top seed Carlos Alcaraz has had to work hard this week to make his way to the semifinals of the Western & Southern Open. All three of his matches have been competitive affairs in which he dropped a set. He found ways to win, but Jordan Thompson, Tommy Paul, and Max Purcell all had real opportunities to upset the world No. 1.
Alcaraz, who comes into the summer hard-court swing as the Wimbledon champion, has been a little off the boil. American Tommy Paul upset the 20-year-old Spaniard in the Toronto quarterfinals last week in a match that could generously be called “mediocre” by Alcaraz’s standards.
Hubert Hurkacz just lost to Alcaraz last week in Canada in tight three-setter. The Pole did not play particularly well in Toronto, which isn’t surprising since conditions are slower there than in Cincinnati and there is far more action on the ball in these current conditions. That is a benefit to Hurkacz’s big-serving game.
This match is almost certainly going the distance; it might even feature a trio of tiebreak sets given the effectiveness of the Hurkacz serve. A slight edge goes to Alcaraz, but if Hurkacz were to win it would really only be an upset on paper and certainly not a shock.
Cheryl pick: Alcaraz in 3
Ricky pick: Hurkacz in 3
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Not much you can do about that – Hurkacz choked.
For some reason, Alcaraz’s opponents seem to lose focus during the match.
Its probably due to all the carrying on going on down his end of the court. You have to have to no mercy and finish him off.