Top seed Carlos Alcaraz of Spain beat Sebastian Korea of the United States 6-3 6-4 in the semifinal at Queen’s Club in London on Saturday. The match was over within a couple of hours as the 20-year-old Spaniard reached his first final on grass. Alcaraz will take on seventh seed Alex de Minaur of Australia in the final on Sunday. The Spaniard will undoubtedly be the favourite to win the title, having reinforced his credentials by dispatching the American Korda in straight sets.
Alcaraz targets Korda’s backhand:
Alcaraz served extensively to Korda’s backhand, especially from the ad court, to exploit the American’s weaker wing. The tactic paid off as the American broke him just once – in the very first game of the match. Alcaraz quickly got back on track, breaking Korda in the very next game to level the score at 1-1 and then went on to get another break in the eighth game courtesy of some pummelling forehands. He then served out the first set to draw first blood.
Alcaraz’s tenacity and forehand did the job in the second set:
Alcaraz looked the hungrier of the two players throughout the match. His court-coverage was better and his groundstrokes more lethal for the better part of the match. The Spaniard’s forehand won him a lot of points in the second set. His crosscourt forehand that made the American stretch towards the latter’s forehand side was a very effective shot indeed.
Korsa tried hitting his returns deep at times, but Alcaraz countered that by opting for serve-and-volley. The Spaniard got the decisive break of serve in the third game of the second set and then held his serve to go 3-1 up. He then maintained the lead for the remainder of the match. Korda had the bigger serve of the two and fired nine aces in the match. Still, he was able to win only 61% of the points on his first serve, while Alcaraz managed a much better 79%.
Main photo credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports
