Carlos Alcaraz ended his year 2023 with one more win, this time beating Roberto Bautista Agut to win the 2023 Copa Carlos Alcaraz.
Before officially starting the 2024 season on the ATP Tour, the young Spaniard played a few exhibition matches. First, he bested Novak Djokovic to win the 2023 Riyadh Season Tennis Cup, and then, he played at his own Copa Carlos Alcaraz.
It's a tennis event held at the Palacio de los Deportes in Alcaraz's hometown, Murcia. It was held on December 28th, 2023, and the event featured three exciting matches between local players.
First, Kike Siscar took on Jorge Iglesias in a wheelchair men's singles match, then Gerlings and Martinez played a doubles match against Rey and Segado before Carlos Alcaraz took on Roberto Bautista Agut in the main match of the evening.
It was expected that around 7,500 spectators will watch the match live, and they were treated to a show as both players showed their qualities, with shots worth the most important matches.
Of course, it was also obvious that the match was an exhibition, but in the first set, neither refused to give up, as it had to be decided in a tie-break.
Neither of the players were able to secure a break, but despite the first set being closely contested, the tie-break was very one-sided as Alcaraz managed to win it easily 7-1 and take the first set of the match.
However, in the second set of the match, former world no. 9, Bautista Agut, showed why he used to be such a feared player, as he didn't allow his opponent to do much, winning the second set 6-1 and taking the match into the decider.
Because of the exhibition nature of the match, the third set was only a super tie-break, and that was won by Alcaraz who won the match 7-6(1), 1-6, 10-7 to win the inaugural Copa Carlos Alcaraz.
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