Carlos Alcaraz ended the 10-match tournament winning streak of defending champion Hubert Hurkacz to advance to the final at the
Miami Open presented by Itau.
With his 7-6(5), 7-6(2) victory, the Spaniard has reached the biggest final of his young career, going one better than his semi-final run at Indian Wells two weeks ago. A visibly emotional Alcaraz said after the match:
"I have a lot of emotions right now. It's something that you dream of when you are a child. It's really good to be in the final here in Miami. I love playing here. The crowd is amazing. I'm going to approach the final like a first round, trying to mask the nerves. I'm going to enjoy it, it's going to be a great final."
Hurkacz gave Alcaraz trouble with his precise serve that was very hard to tame so the Spaniard knew it was going to close no matter what:
"I couldn't return his serves, but I knew that the match was going to be long sets like it was, 7-6, 7-6. At the beginning, I saw that I couldn't return. I thought we were going to play a lot of tie-breaks... A little bit different [than my previous matches] with his serve, but it's a great win for me."
By reaching the final, Alcaraz moves up to third place in the ATP Race to Turin, with an opportunity to move up to second with the title. The World No. 16 improves to 6-6 against the Top 10, having won the opening set in all six of his victories and lost the opener in all six defeats.