{"id":57151,"date":"2023-06-06T16:45:02","date_gmt":"2023-06-06T20:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=57151"},"modified":"2023-06-06T16:45:02","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T20:45:02","slug":"carlos-alcaraz-rips-through-tsitsipas-french-open-masterclass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2023\/06\/06\/carlos-alcaraz-rips-through-tsitsipas-french-open-masterclass\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlos Alcaraz Rips Through Stefanos Tsitsipas In French Open Masterclass"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz defeated fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in a brilliant 6-2 6-1 7-6(5) display in just two hours and 15 minutes. The Spaniard will now face Novak Djokovic for a place in the 2023 French Open final, the most anticipated match of the tournament since the draw placed them in the same half.<\/p>\n<h2>Lead-Up<\/h2>\n<p>Outside of a one-set blip against Taro Daniel in the second round, Carlos Alcaraz has been absolutely dominant. The Spaniard\u2019s level across his last two matches, dropping just seven games each to Denis Shapovalov and Lorenzo Musetti, confirmed his status as the scariest player to face in this draw. Tsitsipas got off to a rought start against Jiri Vesely, having to save set points in the fourth-set tiebreak to prevent his opener going to five sets. The 2021 finalist recovered well though, not dropping a set since against Roberto Carballes Baena, Diego Schwartzman, and Sebastian Ofner.<br \/>\n<a id=\"Mlw_m4jdS6F_D6CZ-4a_RQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1496452058\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'Mlw_m4jdS6F_D6CZ-4a_RQ',sig:'zrqZQCcMN-R-MK6tFxalbCwLZobnnzyLQLXE3MVlIaw=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1496452058',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>The Match<\/h2>\n<p>Both players got off to a strong start on serve with unquestioned holds despite the windy conditions but Tsitsipas went down 0-30 in the third game. Alcaraz\u2019s 109 mph forehand was slightly long but as Tsitsipas missed a backhand volley, the Spaniard found himself with two break points. Tsitsipas saved both, but could not get a game point, Alcaraz taking it with a forehand winner on the fourth break point. The top seed confirmed the break and Tsitsipas held only once before Alcaraz broke him again, setting up a 5-2 lead with another brilliant forehand on the slide. The 20-year-old served out the first set after just 32 minutes, punishing Tsitsipas\u2019 backhand and coming up with some incredible shot-making, seemingly pulling winners out of a hat from tough defensive situations thanks to his movement. Alcaraz did this once again to go 30-0 up on Tsitsipas\u2019 serve in the first game of the second set, getting three break points and taking the first one after the Greek\u2019s forehand shank.<br \/>\n<a id=\"6CBPRaEPTLR59wM6SC2yEA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1496464522\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'6CBPRaEPTLR59wM6SC2yEA',sig:'JEbvatnhBZJbbUXj6g-7nJlB5YjprKRa7gQjXuR43tM=',w:'594px',h:'407px',items:'1496464522',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><br \/>\nTsitsipas found himself unable to shift the tide in any meaningful way, every point won being a battle for the Greek and he got broken again at 3-1. Alcaraz confirmed it and Tsitsipas found himself 2-6 1-5 down after just a little over an hour. Down 0-30 on his serve, Tsitsipas stepped towards his box, speaking a few sentences to his father in Greek and coming back for more at 0-40, resulting in him receiving a time violation warning and finishing the set with a double fault. Alcaraz\u2019s dominance continued in the third set, jumping out to a 3-0 lead after confirming the break. Tsitsipas got himself on the board in the third set with a hold and kept himself just a break behind in the third again with a second hold for 4-2, coming up with a couple of drop shot winners. Alcaraz stopped Tsitsipas&#8217; momentum as he finally started to get himself fired up with a tough hold, taking the 5-2 lead and making the fifth seed serve to stay in the match. Tsitsipas saved two match points from 15-40 down and didn&#8217;t stop at that. Shortly after pushing Alcaraz to deuce for the first time in the match, Tsitsipas came up with the break at the last possible moment. The Greek faced another match point serving to stay in the match for a second time but Alcaraz mishit the return, letting Tsitsipas hold for 5-5. The 20-year-old held his cool, holding for 6-5 and putting Tsitsipas under pressure once again but the Greek took the third set to a tiebreak. Alcaraz jumped away to a 4-1 lead, Tsitsipas taking it down to 4-3 before Alcaraz got more match points at 6-3. Tsitsipas saved the fourth and fifth but Alcaraz took his sixth match points with a beautiful backhand volley, sealing the win.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz defeated fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in a brilliant 6-2 6-1 7-6(5) display in just two hours and 15 minutes. The Spaniard will now face Novak Djokovic for a place in the 2023 French Open final, the most anticipated match of the tournament since the draw placed them in the same [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1821,"featured_media":57152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3],"tags":[18842,5729,304],"class_list":["post-57151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-french-open","category-atp","tag-2023-french-open","tag-carlos-alcaraz","tag-stefanos-tsitsipas"],"modified_by":"Jakub Bobro","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1821"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}