It will be back-to-back finals in Spain for Carlos Alcaraz after he managed to come back from a set down against Novak Djokovic in the 2022 Madrid Open semi-final.
After winning the coin toss, Alcaraz decided to let his opponent serve first, and it was a good decision by the Spaniard as he broke in Djokovic's very first service game in the first 2022 Madrid Open semi-final.
Alcaraz was already 3-1 and 4-2 up in the set, but it looked like Djokovic was a slightly better player all the time as he got the break back and even had a set point in the tenth game.
After he failed to convert it, the set reached the tie-break, in which, despite the Spaniard's best efforts to come back from 2-6 down, Djokovic prevailed 7-5 in the tie-break to win the opening set.
In the second set, the 2022 Barcelona Open champion continued to struggle with unforced errors. After missing out on breaking Djokovic in the sixth game, Alcaraz himself faced two break points in the ninth and one in the eleventh game of the second set.
However, he went on to win 7 out of the last 8 points in the set to level the score of the match, winning the second set 7-5. At the start of the third set, Alcaraz looked much more comfortable and also appeared to be more confident on his serve.
Moreover, he was very dangerous on the return when he had five breakpoints in the first six games of the third set. However, he didn't manage to convert any of those, and the score was leveled at 3-3 after six games played.
After missing out on so many break points, the Spaniard also faced a break point in the seventh game, but also managed to dodge it to gain an important 4-3 lead in the decider.
He already led 30-0 on Djokovic's serve before the World No. 1 player won six points in a row to level the score of the set once again and gain a 30-0 lead on the Spaniard's serve this time.
Yet, the tables turned once again as Alcaraz won four points in a row to make another step closer to winning the match as he led already 5-4. In the tenth game, Alcaraz already had a match point, but the Serbian hit an ace and eventually won the game.
The final set reached the tie-break, and in the end, the young Spaniard handled his nerves better to win the match 6-7(5), 7-5, 7-6(5) after three hours and 37 minutes. In the final of the 2022 Madrid Open, he will be facing the winner of the second semifinal between Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev.
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