BY JAMES BECK
Poor Carlos Alcaraz.
Or should I say unfortunate Alexander Zverev.
Or maybe reverse that.
It just wasn’t their day on Friday at the French Open.
That day belonged to Novak Djokovic and Casper Ruud. But Ruud probably was the only one who could be really happy about the French Open semifinals.
RUUD IS LOOKING STRONGER
Ruud put in a hard day’s work, even though he posted a solid 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 win over Zverev in the last semifinal. The Norwegian is just that way. He’s always Ruud. Few errors and fewer mistakes, just playing to outplay the other guy with his consistency.
Ruud, however, appears to be putting a little more power into his strokes these days. The 24-year-old is really good. Watch out, Novak. He’s capable if you have an off day on Sunday.
Of course, there have been few “off days” in the legendary career of Novak Djokovic.
Djokovic now just wants to win Grand Slam titles, and he should do that again Sunday against Ruud. Thanks, maybe, to young Carlos Alcaraz suffering cramps in Friday’s semifinals.
ALCARAZ WAS GREAT IN THE SECOND SET
Alcaraz played a really strong second set to pull even with Novak, then the world fell for the 20-year-old Spaniard when he pulled up lame with leg cramps holding a 1-0 lead in the third set facing a 40-30 deficit.
When Alcaraz conceded the remainder of the second game and his third game service to satisfy the rules of the game, he was already down 2-1. The rest really didn’t matter. Alcaraz won only one of the last 13 games, not because Djokovic was that good, but because Alcaraz just didn’t want to retire.
ZVEREV AND ALCARAZ WEREN’T THE REAL LOSERS
And there it was, a 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 win for Novak that left the 36-year-old Serbian in line to pick up a record-setting 23rd Grand Slam title in Sunday’s final.
The real losers were the fans. Just imagine Djokovic and Alcaraz going the full five sets.
It probably would have been magical. All of the world of tennis would have been saying, “I was watching when . . .”
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James Beck was the 2003 winner of the USTA National Media Award. A 1995 MBA graduate of The Citadel, he can be reached at Jamesbecktennis@gmail.com.
