"He was desperate" - says Corretja about Tsitsipas nearly hitting Alcaraz with a ball

Alex Corretja believes Stefanos Tsitsipas was “desperate” when he appeared to hit the ball at Carlos Alcaraz during their quarter-final clash at the Barcelona Open.

Tsitsipas was down 5-4 and 40-0 when he ran to pick up a volley on his forehand side. With Alcaraz at the net, Tsitsipas fired the ball back straight down the middle of the court, forcing his opponent to duck out of the way. Alcaraz stared down Tsitsipas as he went to his chair while the Barcelona crowd made their feelings clear as they whistled and booed the world No. 5.

On that, Corretja said:

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“I was very surprised to see Alcaraz dictating so much against Tsitsipas. Someone who just won Monte Carlo and is usually very aggressive, but he struggled so much on the backhand side and from Stefanos’ point of view you can see he was desperate, that’s why on that ball he ran and he was just trying to hit as hard as he could to probably just to tell the guy ‘OK, leave me alone, you’re pushing me so much’."

He continued:

“And it was, I think, sort of like a desperate reaction from Stefanos. And I also liked a lot the way Alcaraz behaved at that moment because he looked at him like ‘OK, no fear, I’m not scared of you, I’m beating you and that’s what I’m doing with my tactics’. He mixed it up very well. He showed a lot of personality and at the same time he was brave and ready to fight.”