Carlos Alcaraz never saw Manuel Santana and Manuel Orantes play. The former was the pioneer of racquet sport in Spain and won four Grand Slam titles in the 1960s. Orantes was crowned in a major, as well as being an ATP master, all in 1975. The two Manolos of Spanish tennis reached 10 quarter-finals in the majors.
This figure was surpassed on Sunday by Carlos Alcaraz with his classification among the eight best at Roland Garros. At 22 years and 28 days old, he is only behind Rafael Nadal (47) and David Ferrer (17) in this statistic. The Spaniard ended the resistance of Ben Shelton, 7-6(8), 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, in 3 hours and 19 minutes Alcaraz had a tennis break on Saturday, where he stayed at the hotel doing recovery in the gym. He had a soccer marathon because he watched Real Murcia’s promotion playoff match and then the Champions League final.
The tennis player had finished treatment with his physiotherapist Juanjo Moreno after three o’clock on Saturday morning, and did not wake up until midday. The decision not to practice on the Roland Garros courts was a fact.
Carlitos smiled again on his return to the day session at the Philippe Chatrier after the toll that all the favorites have to pay with the night session in Paris
The 19 victories in 20 matches on the current European clay court tour have allowed him to reach 100 wins on the surface. He is the fourth professional who has needed fewer matches (119) to reach the record. Only Nadal (100-12), Ken Rosewall (100-15) and Tom Okker (100-15) achieved a higher percentage of effectiveness.
Shelton is left-handed, a species that the Spaniard is not bad at. Of the 44 duels with players who fit that profile, he has won 34 in his favor. The last victim with this characteristic was Jack Draper, in the quarterfinals of the Masters 1000 in Rome.
If the match had a headline, it was: talent against strength. Ben clung to his powerful serve to keep the score even. With tips at 230 kilometers per hour, the American came alive in the tiebreaker.
Alcaraz had fallen on the third point of the seventh game. He had to go and clean himself up in the changing chair. It was a false alarm. The two protagonists have a magnificent relationship. This was demonstrated when they shook hands after the point at 4-3. The champion asked the referee that his opponent’s serve had touched the net.
Three set points
It’s always a bad business to go to a tiebreak with a server. He had to lift three set balls. The first two at 6-4 and a third at 7-6. Juan Carlos Ferrero asked him to throw the ball a little higher to the serve: “Higher, higher“
Shelton, far from giving up, manufactured six break points in the first game of the second set. He could not take advantage of any of them. He was playing as never before in his life on clay because he likes the big stages. His size allows him to hit as hard as he wants. The sentence of the set came in the eighth game with the first break of the winner.
The American went back on the attack with a 3-1 lead. It was a warning that he was going to close the gap. The 36 unforced errors of his decorated opponent weighed heavily. He stopped the rebellion in time.
Alcaraz, the defending champion, has won his last 11 matches at the French Open. In the last three he has dropped a set. For the fourth time in a row he will be in the penultimate round of the French Open. Nadal (10 times) and Gustavo Kuerten (2001) have successfully defended their crowns this century.Carlitos, with suffering, is still aiming for everything.
The two sessions overlap
The long duration of the first three matches of the day on the Philippe Chatrier court has meant that the day and night sessions have overlapped. Amelie Mauresmo will not be very happy, as she had planned for the start of the Holger Rune-Lorenzo Musetti match at 20:15 and it will not be until at least nine o’clock because the stadium has to be emptied
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