ATP Finals: Carlos Alcaraz revives Turin hopes with Rublev win

In the second match of the group stage of the ATP Finals 2024, Carlos Alcaraz was obliged to win against Andrey Rublev to have a chance of qualifying for the semifinals. After the bad performance in his initial match, he has managed to recover from the initial blow with a great victory.

Alcaraz has defeated Rublev by 6-3, 7-6, without dropping any set. This result is very important in his aspirations to advance to the next round. But for that he will have to beat Alexander Zverev in his next match.

In the first set, the tension was palpable in the atmosphere. Both knew the importance of the match, as a loss would leave them with no chance of qualifying for the semifinals. As a result, the first games had little history.

After the 2-2 and with Rublev on serve, Alcaraz starred in the first threat of the set to get 15-40 up, with 2 break points. However, the Russian managed to turn the situation around to hold his serve. With an easy game, the Spaniard put the 3-3 on the scoreboard.

In the next game, Carlitos had another break point with an advantage after 40-40. This time, the Spaniard was going to materialize his opportunity, and was ahead 4-3 in the overall result of the set. After confirming the break and taking a 5-3 lead, Alcaraz would take advantage of his good moment to give Rublev another break and take the first set 6-3.

In the second set, thanks to close the previous one with a break, Carlos Alcaraz started serving, and he did it by putting the 1-0 with a game in white. Here the equality between the Spaniard and Andrey Rublev was going to be much more latent than in the previous set. In fact, not a single break chance was going to come, and so everything was going to be decided in a crucial tie break.

In the tiebreaker, Alcaraz started winning his first serve, 1-0. The Spaniard won the first minibreak on Rublev's serve to take a 2-1 lead. After winning his next two points on serve, Carlitos went up to 4-1. Rublev cut it to 4-3, without throwing in the towel. The Russian found his reward, and with a mini break he would tie it 5-5. In fact, he would turn it around to 5-6 with a set point.

Alcaraz would save that opportunity of Rublev with his serve, and returned equality to the tie break scoreboard: 6-6. The Spaniard now had his own chance to close the match at 7-6, but Rublev was still at a very solid level, and with his two serves he got 7-8 with a second set ball. Alcaraz did the same, and with 9-8 he would have his second match ball. On this occasion, Carlitos was not going to fail, and would end up taking the tie break by 10-8 to win a very tough match.