ATP 1000 Championships in Madrid – Alcaraz as spoiler: Nadal misses Djokovic duel – Sports

• Carlos Alcaraz (ATP 9) won the Spanish Generation Duel with Rafael Nadal (ATP 4) in the quarter-finals of the ATP 1000 Championships in Madrid in three sets.
• In the semi-finals, Alcaraz will meet Novak Djokovic (ATP 1), who beat Hubert Hurkacz (ATP 14) in two sets.
• Stefanos Tsitsipas (ATP 5) is also in the round of four after a 3-set win over Andrei Rublev (ATP 8).

Carlos Alcaraz, 19, defeated old teacher Rafael Nadal (35) for the first time in the third match. He won the Spanish fencing 6: 2, 1: 6, 6: 3. The teenager had to endure a moment of shock when he painfully twisted his ankle. Nevertheless, he was able to continue playing.

Alcaraz is the first under-20 player to beat Nadal on clay. King Felipe of Spain was also excited about the young man’s performance in “Caja Magica” in Madrid. Just a year ago, Nadal defeated Alcaraz 6:1, 6:2 in the same spot.

No. 1 in the pole rankings gave him no break opportunities in either round, but he did use two of them. Already at the first opportunity in the starting group, he managed to make a breakthrough in the service. Also in the second round he took the serve from his opponent early on.

Djokovic only had to be patient at the end of the match: match point number 4 after 81 minutes meant the lead at the end. Regarding the semi-finals, Djokovic is relieved. “I don’t care who is on the other side of the net,” said the Serb. “I just want to get better and better every day. Right now I’m just focusing on myself.”

Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated Russia’s Andrei Rublev 6:3, 2:6 and 6:4. In the semi-finals, the Greek meets the winner of the match between Alexander Zverev (ATP 3) and Felix Auger-Aliassime (ATP 10).