Carlos Alcaraz says he was happy with the Australian Open efforts despite coming short in the second week after losing to Alexander Zverev in the quarterfinal.
The 20-year-old looked in good touch at the Australian Open and threatened a comeback following a slow start against the German in quarterfinal but couldn’t stretch the clash past fourth set, allowing Zverev to reach the final four after a 6-1, 6-3, 6(2)-7, 6-4 loss. For his 7th Major final, the World No. 6 will take on the World No. 3 Daniil Medvedev who earlier saw off Pole Hubert Hurkacz after a five-set battle.
Alcaraz was overwhelmingly tipped to make it to the top four semifinal line but he looked reckless in the first two sets and Zverev took full advantage of that by barely missing a first serve and exceptional groundstrokes that had both depth and precision and outweighed Alcaraz’s powerful hitting.
The German has faced a lot of criticism and off-court backlash amid the domestic abuse allegations and forthcoming trial but his ability as a tennis player remains unquestionable since coming back from the ankle injury. The Spaniard briefly showed his rallying skills in the second frame but was already thinking about packing up inside two hours when Zverev served for the match at 5-3 in the third. However, the 20-year old was not done yet as the broke the Zverev serve to force a tie-break and eventually won it. However, his racket gave away too many unforce errors and consequently the match.
This was 2-time Grand Slam champion’s best run in Melbourne and he said: “It has been a good tournament for me, making quarter-finals, playing good tennis.
“I’m sad with my level today, because I have been playing good tennis, the round before this one with a lot of confidence. Serving pretty well.
“But in general I leave the tournament happy. Forgetting about today’s level. Obviously quarter-final of a grand slam is good. It’s not what I’m looking for, but it’s not bad.
“It’s a shame that I started the match like the way that I did and ending the way that I did. But it’s tennis.”
The 2023 Wimbledon champion played down the impact of being without his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero, who has to recover from a knee surgery back in Spain.
“It didn’t affect (me) at all,” said the 20-year-old. “As I said, I was playing great tennis without him. I had Samuel (Lopez) that is a pretty good coach as well. I trust him 100 per cent.”
Zverev, 26 who lost his only major final to Dominic Thiem at the 2020 US Open, received treatment for blisters on his foot at the end of the third set but rallied well to close the match in time, thanks to good numbers on serve.
“When you’re up 6-1 6-3 5-2, you start thinking,” said the sixth seed, for whom this was a first win over a top-five opponent at a grand slam.
“It’s not always helpful but I’m happy I got there in the end. I fought back quite well in the fourth set.”