“It has been stressful,” synthesizes Carlos Alcaraz, already in the round of 16 Wimbledon after raising the imposing Silhouette of Jan-Lennard Struff, a mole (35 years and 125º) that deceives: it seems not to be, but in the end it demands. Not enough, in any case, to interrupt the good step of the world number two, which progresses in London, but seriously: 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 and 6-4, after 2h 25m. In the absence of showing its rapture version, with an intermediate profile that is worth to dispatch the rounds despite irregularity, the Murcia continues to link victories over the English green (17) and extends the sequence it manufactured in May until 21. There are days of brightness, and others that demand hierarchy. Knowing how to suffer, knowing how to succeed. He will collide on Sunday with Andrey Rublev, decimocarto (7-5, 6-2 and 6-3 to Adrian Mannarino).
Two roads intersect, that of a tennis player who does not want trouble and that of another who does not want them either, but for half an hour he self -destructs he alone. Very little by Struff, at the beginning he failed and voluntarily precipitated, as if he wanted to go quickly to the locker room and end up without taking a single scratch. Ball goes, ball comes. Very little sense. Misunderstood minimalism. Why three or four blows? For a jacket like him, if the deck does not work the possibilities are reduced to nothing, so that a beautiful catwalk for Alcaraz is displayed, which simply leaves the one to do (undo) and is obtaining juicy revenues without the need to burn unnecessary energies. Everything counts, it is already known.
In just 27 minutes, the first partial has sealed, and in the central one – full, ideal temperature, funds without excessive baldness – there are few who begin to look at the clock, thinking that, if it continues like this, the duel may be reduced to a mid -afternoon snack. It is not so. Wake up the gigantón. Your lever dawns. The nap is over. Nothing that revives that anesthetized arm and increases the percentages with the service, Struff finds a way to finally enter the game and raise debate, finding Alcaraz before a very different scenario. In the blink of an eye, he is forced to rise and go down to the mud because in Wimbledon, if a bomber catches you cold everything can happen. And there is a German growing: care.
To which you can, Struff is thrown to the network and he, on the other hand, chooses to maintain a more conservative strategy, more according to these times in which the ball has multiplied on the grass and in which the loot -red is a thing of a few explorers. There, rather, those intrepid days remained: Mcenroe, Edberg, Becker, Sampras, Ivanisevic. Even Federer. He, this time, is committed to the patience recipe from the lime line, to conquer the green: no adventure, build from the trench. Come here, that I pass you. Or not. The Spanish is not completely inspired, whose average first is decaying and whose game enters a recessive process in the second set. Break Up, it locks.
He is costing him, and is repeatedly encouraged: “Come on!” “Come!” “Goes!”. He squeezes Struff, a tanned and punished player to whom the injuries have prevented him from winning flight; of registration, everything is said, limited and monochord but dangerous enough, in any case, to avoid falling into any excess of confidence. Until now, more defeats (17) than triumphs (7) for him this season. But, even so, it engages in the afternoon. Spider the second partial, in the form of a touch of attention that Alcaraz attends, to which the bulb and reagent is activated. After granting ground, it recovers it based on efficiency and that is necessarily imposed: serve, serve and more serve. Return to the good path. Yes or yes. Only there you get to El Dorado.
The third act with a minimal concession, three points, and the fourth takes place on a fine, tense and potentially compromising wire in which he, a good juggler, increasingly comfortable in those moments in which the rest of the minds break, exhibits all his authority. Walled Alcaraz. Insurmountable until today. In front of a threatening Struff and eager to mess, a blow on the table. In an episode of little color, it is well worth having the librillo that allows to escape uncomfortable situations like this. From this, to overcome the main goals and days, there are also the Grand Slams, after all. Seriousness and more seriousness. I see the eighths and save artillery, how a good failure will make you from now on.
Sierra, first played in eighths
A. C. | Londres
This wimbledon offers a beautiful story that, in parallel, harms Spanish tennis. It is called Solana Sierra and a few days ago I was preparing the flight back, after having fallen in the third round of the previous phase, until he received the organization of the organization: a decline granted him a hole in the main box.
And here she is, the first repeat that manages to progress until the round of 16 in the history of the tournament. His triumph, of course, appeals to Cantabra Cristina Bucsa, lower after two hours of the game: 7-5, 1-6 and 6-1. Too passive, the Spanish says goodbye and Argentina, 21 years old and, provisionally, 65th of the world, will run into Laura Siegemund.
The German veteran (37) won the American Madison Keys, so another head off. Without the eighth of the world, among the top-10 They only resist Aryna Sabalenka, Mirra Andreeva and Emma Navarro. Very open, this edition now points to the first Argentina that manages to reach the second week.
In addition to BUCSA, Spanish tennis lost the trick of Alejandro Davidovich, surpassed by the American Taylor Fritz in a four-sleeve duel: 6-4, 6-3, 6-7 (5) and 6-1. The options are now deduced to Alcaraz, Jaume Munar (14.00, Marin Cilic), Pedro Martínez (14.30, Jannik Sinner) and Jessica Bouzas (12.00, Diyana Yamstremska).
