For the fourth time on the ATP Tour since the start of the 2011 season, the same two players went head-to-head in two finals in the span of two weeks.
After beating Cameron Norrie 6-3, 7-5 to lift the Buenos Aires trophy last weekend, Carlos Alcaraz was on the verge of going back-to-back in Rio de Janeiro–in terms of both defeating Norrie and also defending his 2022 Rio Open title. But Norrie had other ideas. The world No. 13 battle back from a set and a break deficit to stun Alcaraz 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 following a two-hour and 41-minute roller-coaster ride.
Alcaraz led by a set, by 3-0 in the second, and had 0-30 on Norrie’s serve to go up 4-0. After Norrie ended up holding for 1-3, however, everything changed. The British left-hander used that momentum to steal the second set, at which point Alcaraz began to struggle significantly with a left thigh injury. Despite his physical ailments, the 19-year-old Spaniard still managed to lead by an early break in the third and eventually come back from a break late in the set. After Norrie seized another break to pull ahead 5-4, though, he finally closed it out on serve.
“What a match, Charlie,” Norrie said during the trophy ceremony. “(It was) another battle. I had to give absolutely everything to beat you today…. The match could have gone either way, but I managed to run a little bit more. It’s an honor to share the court with you again and compete with you.
“(It’s) so special to win this one, especially (because) I’d lost a couple finals already this year and I had to do it the tough way — a set and a break down and 0-30 on my serve, I was looking done there and I managed to flick a switch and turn it around.
“So it was a good day.”
The previous three instances dating back to January 2011 of back-to-back finals in back-to-back weeks between the same players were Rafael Nadal vs. David Ferrer in Monte-Carlo and Barcelona (2011), Nadal vs. Novak Djokovic in Madrid and Rome (2011), and Novak Djokovic vs. Andy Murray also in Madrid and Rome (2016).
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a wild one!