Carlos Alcaraz thrashed by Andrey Rublev in Abu Dhabi

| by Zachary Wimer

Carlos Alcaraz didn't play a very good match at the 2022 Mubadala World Tennis Championship, as he lost to Andrey Rublev.

Before the highest-ranked player on the ATP Tour stepped on the court against world no. 8, the first semifinal match took place. In that, Stefanos Tsitsipas bested Casper Ruud 6-2, 6-2 in an hour and 7 minutes, and while fans hoped to see more action in the second match, the opposite was true.

The Spaniard, who recently said that he wants to challenge Novak Djokovic, was one of the two seeded players at the tournament, having a quarterfinal bye before playing his semifinal match.

He took on Andrey Rublev, who had no problems in his quarterfinal match, beating Borna Coric in 7-6(4), 6-4, and surprisingly, his win over Alcaraz was even more dominant, as he did not allow the Spaniard to do anything.

Alcaraz was immediately broken in the second game of the opening set and after not converting three break points himself in games 3 and 5, he was broken once more and lost the first set 2-6 in just 30 minutes.

Carlos Alcaraz to start his own foundation in Spain
Carlos Alcaraz to start his own foundation in Spain

In the second set, it was Alcaraz who had the first two break points, but he couldn't use those again in a marathon first game, which the Russian won. On the other hand, Rublev stepped up his game on the return even more.

He got two more breaks and led 5-1 when serving for the set. His opponent than created two more chances to break, but the 2022 US Open champion didn't convert any of his seven break points, as Rublev won 6-2, 6-1 in just 59 minutes to set up a final clash with Stefanos Tsitsipas.

On the other hand, Alcaraz will also get to play one more match at the tournament, as he will take on Ruud will for the third place, an untraditional concept for tennis players, which occurs only at the Olympics, and in this case, exhibition tournaments.

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