Carlos Alcaraz throws away second set against Tsitsipas but rises up to win in 3 at the Barcelona Open

Carlos Alcaraz proved better than Stefanos Tsisipas once more after taking him down at last year's US Open.

Carlos played his best match since the Miami Open to down Stefanos Tsitsipas once more in the Barcelona Open quarterfinal 6-4 5-7 6-2. The Spaniard and Tsitsipas started off the match with rather well as both players were able to play very good tennis. Neither found a breakthrough early but Alcaraz was quite a bit more sharper and very dominant in rallies.

It was similar to their US Open match as Alcaraz was simply bombarding away winners. That display eventually got him the break he needed at the end of the set and he was able to finish it off with 6-4. The 2nd set started with Alcaraz completely dominating play even more as Tsisipas was not able to find any solutions.

The Spaniard went up 4-1 in the set and we seemed close to a conclusion but a bit of careless play by the Spaniard got Tsitsipas one break back. The Greek found inspiration in that and started playing much better breaking Alcaraz once more and getting him to rush quite a bit. Eventually, he completed the stunning 2nd set comeback with 7-5.

The final set featuerd a bit of a meltdown by Tsitsipas who lost his serve twice at the start of the 3rd set as well opting to leave the court to change his shirt during a changeover delaying the game by over a minute. By rule he got two points penalties as he was on return and Alcaraz went up 4-0. The Spaniard finished off the job with 6-2.