As a Carlos fan, I’m disappointed for him that he could not make it further at the AO this year. Yet even in this match when being utterly dominated by the Sasha serve for the most part, he re-grouped in the 3rd set, and took back the momentum to equalize after being down 5-2, winning the tiebreak in the 3rd set. The 4th set was competitive too. It takes enormous belief and conviction to pull back in such an uneven match- well done to him for the fight back. He is 20 years old with top drawer credentials in his career to date, getting to his first QF at the AO. Apparently, the ticket prices have dropped considerably, since this loss. Winning and losing are part and parcel of any players career, and I anticipate that Carlos will draw lessons from this loss and move on to play better. I look forward to it.
Turning to Sasha, what a superb performance by him after the challenges he faced in some of his earlier matches. He started strong and basically keep his foot on the throttle sufficiently to avoid the fifth set. After the awful injury he sustained and the slow road back to competing at this level again, well done to him for getting to the SF. The comms said that this is Sasha's biggest win to date in a GS – it was a special achievement to beat this remarkable 20 year old boy.
I enjoyed these clips:
Carlos’ cross court winner:
Nick Kyrgios’ and Nick Lester’s reactions to this rally in the tie break:
Nick Kyrgios marvelled at Carlos Alcarazs skills as he commentated on the Spaniards Australian Open match against Alexander Zverev. Sky TV subscribers get discovery+ Standard at no extra cost, just say get discovery+ into your voice remote.
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