Top seed and defending champion Carlos Alcaraz of Spain thrashed 13th seed Alexander Zverev of Germany 6-1 6-2 in a fourth-round matches of the Madrid Open on Tuesday that lasted only an hour and 21 minutes. It was anti-climactic by all means for the spectators who had expected an absorbing clash prior to the start of the match.
Tuesday’s match was every bit as one-sided as the last year’s final between those two in Madrid was.
Carlos Alcaraz blows Alexander Zverev Away in Madrid
An error-prone Zverev made Carlos Alcaraz’s job easier:
Zverev started committing errors from the get-go. He made a couple of double faults in his opening service game and also kept hitting his crosscourt forehands wide of the tram lines. Alcaraz only had to keep the ball on his opponent’s court to wait for the latter to make mistakes.
Alcaraz broke the 26-year-old German twice in the first set to win it at a canter. The way Zverev lost the fifth game from being 40-0 up on his serve actually showed that he was not really up for the contest on the day. Zverev committed 12 unforced errors in the first set, while Alcaraz committed only two.
Carlos Alcaraz out-served the big German:
Alcaraz’s serve has improved a great deal in the recent past and, quite incredibly, he managed to out-serve Zverev on Tuesday. He fired five aces to Zverev’s one in the match, and on one occasion his first serve clocked a jaw-dropping 224 kmph.
Alcaraz also compounded on the German’s misery by making the latter stretch towards his forehand wing, as the German kept committing unforced errors. In fact, Zverev was able to hit only one winner with his forehand in the match, but committed 11 unforced errors off it.
To make matters worse for him, the German hit the net most of the times he was required to display a subtle touch from the forecourt. Alcaraz, meanwhile, hit a few thunderous crosscourt backhands and also a couple of wonderful passes to complete Zverev’s misery. Zverev won his first two service games in the second set, but the Spaniard then won four games on the trot to finish things off.
Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports
