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Carlos Alcaraz Upsets Nadal, Djokovic, Zverev To Win Madrid
By Burton Vanderfliet, Lawn Tennis Analyst, Posted: Thursday, May 12, 2022 9:17am PST USA
Carlos Alcaraz Upsets Nadal, Djokovic, Zverev To Win Madrid Madrid-- Last week at the Mutua Madrid Open, the 19 year old seventh seeded Carlos Alcaraz of Spain powered through the field as he defeated three of the top four players to take the men's title.

In the quarterfinals, Alcaraz faced the fourth ranked 35 year old Rafael Nadal also of Spain.

Mixing soft dropshots and powerful forehand winners, Alcaraz broke serve in the final set to lead 3-1 before holding serve to go ahed 4-1.

Then serving for the match at 5-3, Alcaraz served and vollyed; hitting an inside out crosscourt forehand volley winner to lead 15-0.

Carlos Alcaraz of Spain
Lawn Tennis
Alcaraz became the first player ever to beat Nadal and Djokovic in the same clay court tournament.

Alcaraz then implemented two winning dropshot points to close out the match 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 to reach the semifinals versus the top ranked Novak Djokovic of Serbia.

After splitting the first two sets, set three also remained even as the two players entered a tiebreaker.

Alcaraz struck an inside out crosscourt swing forehand volley winner to lead 1-0.

The Spaniard then struck a down the line backhand winner, his fiftith of the match to lead 3-1.

At 6-5 matchpoint, Alcaraz hit an inside out down the line forehand winner to close out the match after three hours and thirty-five minutes of play.

Alcaraz became the first player ever to beat Nadal and Djokovic in the same clay court tournament.

In the final versus the second seeded Zverev, Alcaraz continued his winning mix of netplay, dropshots and aggressive groundstrokes to lead 6-3, 5-1.

Serving to stay in the match at deuce, Zverev struck two doublefaults to drop serve and the match.

Alcaraz, who rose in the men's rankings from nine to six, is now 28-3 for the year with four singles' titles.

Alcaraz will for sure be one of the favorites at his next tournament Roland Garros also known as the French Open which begins Sunday, May 22nd in Paris.

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