Carlos Alcaraz won't play in his maiden Shanghai Masters semi-final after being stunned by an incredibly inspired Tomas Machac.
When tennis fans looked at the draw for the 2024 Shanghai Masters, one matchup stood out: a possible semi-final matchup between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.
After Sinner won his quarter-final match in Shanghai, the matchup was only one match away from a reality, but Tomas Machac had different ideas. In the previous round, the Czech player stunned Tommy Paul, after which the American player told him: "Good luck man. Win this tournament."
Machac humbly responded: "I'll try my best." And he certainly tried his best against Alcaraz. Still, he couldn't avoid facing break points early in the match. Already in the third game, the Spanish player had one chance to break.
However, Machac was able to save it. The four-time major winner then had another break point in the seventh game of the first set, but his opponent once again saved it.
With no breaks of serve, only a tie-break could decide the first set of this match. After a break-less set, the tie-break was full of mini-breaks, as there were a total of seven mini-breaks in the tie-break.
Unfortunately for Alcaraz, at no point was he the player with a one-mini-break advantage, as he always had to chase down some kind of deficit. The biggest one was 2-5, two mini-breaks down, but he recovered both, making it 4-5.
Still, that wasn't enough to win the set as Machac was able to continue playing at an incredible level, winning the tie-break 7-5 to lead the match after the first set.
With Alcaraz's one-set deficit, the second set was incredibly exciting. It was even more exciting after the Czech player broke first and the World No. 2 couldn't use his break point in the following game, so the scoreboard showed 3-1 for Machac.
However, the Czech player didn't enjoy the lead for a long time, as the recent China Open champion was able to break back and lead 4-3 in the second set.
With both then easily holding their serves, it seemed that the second set would also have to be decided in a tie-break, but Machac had different ideas.
First, he had a first break point at 15-40 on his opponent's serve, but he couldn't use it. But at 30-40, the Czech player pulled off an incredible shot to break and serve for the match.
The last game of the match featured multiple spectacular rallies, in which Alcaraz did his best to recover the ball from places on the court where most of the players never stood before.
However, even that wasn't enough for him to win even a single point in that last game, as Machac was having his day and won the match 7-6(5), 7-5, to reach the semi-finals of the 2024 Shanghai Masters.
After beating a two-time Grand Slam champion in 2024, Machac will have to face no other than another two-time Grand Slam champion in 2024. This time, it will also be the reigning World No. 1, Jannik Sinner.
The Czech player is ready for the challenge, and he was very happy about his level when he spoke about it during the on-court interview following the match.
"Well, I was playing unbelievable. I knew my level of tennis today would be great because I’m playing the best of my career right now, for sure. I beat Tommy Paul in the last match with an unbelievable performance. With this kind of players, I have to play at this level. Otherwise, it’s 6-2, 6-3, and you go home. There’s no other option."
"I knew I had a chance. But you never know. With players like him, if you have a set and are serving at 5-4, it’s really far from winning the match. I played him at Davis Cup, and I only managed to play this level for just one set. Today was two."
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