Carlos Alcaraz has had a lot of things working against him already at the Nitto ATP Finals. He was less than 100 percent with a cold, playing on an unfavorable surface at an event where he has little experience and even less success, and he is at the end of a grueling year. So perhaps it wasn’t a huge surprise when the Spaniard lost his opening match of the week against Casper Ruud.
Nor would it have been a huge shock if Alcaraz lost to Andrey Rublev on Wednesday.
However, the 21-year-old had other ideas. With his tournament hopes hanging in the balance, Alcaraz raised his level to beat Rublev 6-3, 7-6(8). The reigning French Open and Wimbledon champion is now 1-1 in Turin heading into his last round-round match against Alexander Zverev on Friday.
“I surprised myself,” Alcaraz commented. “The way that I played today from the baseline, with my serve. I was really calm. I just tried to be focused on my game and what I had to do and forget about that I’m not feeling well and that I’m sick.
“Once you step on the court, you have to forget everything–your struggles outside the court–and you try to put your focus on hitting a good forehand, a good backhand, and making good tactics against the opponent. I thought I did that pretty well.”
Round-robin competition in Group Ilie Nastase wraps up on Thursday, when Jannik Sinner (2-0) faces Daniil Medvedev (1-1) and Taylor Fritz (1-1) goes up against Alex de Minaur (0-2).
Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on Twitter at @Dimonator.