Alcaraz: Machac At Top-5 Level

By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Thursday, October 10, 2024
Photo credit: Lintao Zhang/Getty

World No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz issued all the right answers amassing a 12-match winning streak.

Firing his forehand with menacing intent, Tomas Machac made all-court artist Alcaraz feel clueless at times today.

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The 23-year-old Machac showed sharp all-court skills stunning Alcaraz 7-6(5), 7-5 to advance to his maiden ATP Masters 1000 semifinal at the Rolex Shanghai Masters today.

Machac not only doubled Alcaraz’s forehand winner total—18 to 9—he won 19 of 20 trips to net taking it to the reigning Wimbledon and Roland Garros champion.

Alcaraz said Machac, who rises to No. 25 in the live rankings, was operating at a Top-5 level of play.

“I feel like I was playing against a top-5 player, not even top 10, no, top 5, his level, it was so high,” Alcaraz said. “I thought that he was going to give me an opportunity, a window, but he didn’t. I mean, since the first game until the last one, his level was so high. His ball speed, it was unbelievable.

“So, I feel good. Honestly, I felt good on the court, I feel really well the ball, I was hitting well, I was moving well. But, honestly, at some point, I didn’t know what to do.”

At times, Machac drove forehands corner to corner leaving Alcaraz lunging at the ball blurring by him.

“Honestly, it was one of those matches that it was insane that I couldn’t play to his forehand,” Alcaraz told the media in Shanghai. “I mean, every time that he was hitting his forehand it was a winner, or the next ball is going to, he was going to hit a winner again. It was unbelievable, it was crazy for me.”

An Olympic gold-medal champion in mixed doubles alongside partner Katerina Siniakova, Machac scored his second career Top 5-win just weeks after retiring against Alcaraz in Davis Cup.

Relishing his shot at revenge, Machac made the most of it setting up a semifinal vs. world No. 1 Jannik Sinner.

“I was really disappointed with how it happened in Davis Cup, because the match was unbelievable,” Machac said. “Even I could lose in three sets, I don’t know, maybe there was a chance to win or not, I don’t know, but I was not happy that the match did not finish as it deserved.

“So I was looking for the revenge, for sure, and I just tried to enjoy the match, enjoy the quarterfinal against one of the best right now. So, even when I lost my serve on 3-All in the second set, I was not even upset because I knew that I did not do anything wrong, and just try to play my game.

“And I deserve it more, maybe, I don’t know, but I’m really happy with my mindset today, for sure.”