Exactly last year, this time around, Rafael Nadal defeated the young Carlos Alcaraz in the Madrid Masters. A year has made a lot of difference with Carlos Alcaraz, and he has successfully taken his revenge against the 21-time grand slam winner, Rafael Nadal.
In an equally poised, topsy-turvy clash, Carlos Alcaraz came on top with a 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 win in Madrid against the Spanish tennis star and probably the best tennis player, Rafael Nadal.
Nadal displayed a never die attitude after staging an epic comeback in the second set, however, Alcaraz held on to his nerves to win the clash. The 19-year-old is set to face Novak Djokovic for the first time in the semifinals of the Madrid Open. The match lasted for around 2 hours and 30 mins.
Stats don’t lie. Rafael Nadal is broken three times and drops the first set to 19-year-old Carlos Alcaraz, 6-2: https://t.co/kCYlOboTp9 pic.twitter.com/klmj430baC
— TENNIS (@Tennis) May 6, 2022
Carlos has had an epic 2022 season with clinching his maiden ATP title in Miami, entering the top 10 rankings and now defeating his idol in Madrid on a clay surface. The Spaniard displayed his superior temperament and maturity throughout the course of the match.
Carlos Alcaraz defeats Rafael Nadal in a three-set thriller
At the beginning of the match, Carlos was dominating Rafael, especially in the first set wherein he struck a massive 19 winners against a struggling Nadal. It was quite a bit difficult for Rafael Nadal to match the intensity with which Carlos was playing.
Even though Rafael seemed to be struggling in the initial stages of the match, he seemed completely calm as his return game began to start firing against his opponent. He soon recovered and stunned Carlos with a second set victory.
At the end of the second set, it seemed as if Rafael had the upper hand and would be defeating his fellow countryman for the final slot.
But Carlos soon re-energised and displayed a resilience level similar to that of Rafael and won the match. In the post-match interview, Carlos stated,
“It means a lot to me,”
“All the hard work that I put in every day pays off today. To beat Rafa, to beat the best player in history on clay, it means a lot to me.”
“When I lost the second set, I [just] thought that I was able to come back, to do my best, try everything on the court, fight until the last ball. It was the key.”
Carlos would now be facing the World no 1 Novak Djokovic in the finals of the Madrid Open. The crowd would surely be supporting their fellow countryman, especially after his recent exploits in the sport.
