Carlos Alcaraz survived another scare at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, this time against Arthur Fils during quarterfinal action on Friday. Alcaraz defeated Arthur Fils 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, but not before trailing 5-5, 0-40 in the second set and 3-1 in the third. The 21-year-old Spaniard ended up winning the final five games of the match to prevail in two hours and 23 minutes.
Alcaraz, who is making just his second appearance at this Masters 1000 tournament, also won nine of the last 10 points in the second set.
“I just wanted to stay strong and wait for my chances,” the world No. 3 commented. “I think his level is high right now and he puts a lot of pressure on his opponents. Today I could feel it but in some moments he just made a few mistakes and I tried to make the most of those points and wait for my chances. The second set I saved those break points and then made the only break point I had that set.
“In the third set I was just trying to play good tennis. When I was a break down I just tried to keep going and play aggressively and be strong mentally and physically.”
Next up or Alcaraz is an all-Spanish semifinal against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina on Saturday. It will mark just their second meeting, with Alcaraz having won the first encounter 7-6(5), 6-4 at the clay-court event in Barcelona two years ago.
Davidovich Fokina eased past Alexei Popyrin 6-3, 6-2 earlier on Friday. The world No. 42, who was recently runner-up in both Delray Beach and Acapulco, has climbed to eighth in the live race to the 2025 Nitto ATP Finals. So far this week he has dismissed Popyrin, Ben Shelton, Tomas Martin Etcheverry, and Jack Draper.
Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on Twitter at @Dimonator.