Madrid (Spain) – It didn’t work out for Paraná’s Thiago Wild against Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, in a duel valid for the third round of the Masters 1000 in Madrid. The number 1 in Brazil and current 63rd in the world actually started well, but then lost performance and was dominated by the home tennis player, who went on to win nine games in a row before closing the match with a double 6/3, in 1h15 of confrontation.
Qualified for the round of 16, Alcaraz will face in the competition the repeat of last year’s decision against German Jan-Lennard Struff, who earlier got the better of Frenchman Ugo Humbert also in direct sets. It will be the fourth duel between them and the Spaniard has a 2-1 advantage in retrospect.
Alcaraz remains unbeaten playing indoors on clay, recording his 23rd consecutive victory in this condition, in which he has not lost since the beginning of 2022, winning the Masters 1000 in Madrid and the ATP 500 in Barcelona in the last two seasons. He is now trying to be the first three-time champion in a row in the Spanish capital.
With the elimination in the third round, Wild is unable to break Brazil’s streak in the Masters 1000 round of 16 and São Paulo’s Thomaz Bellucci remains the last in the country to go that far in a tournament of this level (Rome 2016). Even so, the Paraná native should celebrate his best ranking after the tournament, provisionally rising to 61st place.
Balance at the beginning of the game
The match started evenly, despite the break-point that Wild had to save in the first game, with both showing very firm tennis. However, as the game progressed, Brazil’s number 1 lost his rhythm a little, was unable to attack as much and made more mistakes. This ended up costing him a break in the seventh game.
Afterwards, Alcaraz confirmed the serve and opened the scoreboard with 5/3. Needing to win his service game to try to survive, Wild again failed to fit his serve so well, faced 15-40 and in the first set-point he faced ended up being broken by the world number 3.
The Spaniard’s performance with the serve made the difference in a balanced partial, with 80% success against just 53% for Wild. Furthermore, Alcaraz was also more consistent, finishing the opening set with more winning balls (9 to 7) and with three times fewer unforced errors (4 to 12).
Wild loses performance, but fights until the end
Even with the break between the two sets, Wild was unable to find himself on the court again and had even more work to do with the home tennis player in the second half. Alcaraz took advantage of the momentum and started with everything, winning nine games in a row, the last four of the second set and the first five of the second.
After going through a very negative series, the man from Paraná finally confirmed his service again and came from scratch in the second set, avoiding the “tire” in a firm game of his. Wild took advantage of the moment of reaction to pressure the Spaniard’s serve and managed to return one of the breaks when Alcaraz served to close at 5/1. But the second opportunity he had, the Spaniard didn’t waste it.
Wild’s underperformance was clear in the numbers, with the 24-year-old Brazilian winning just over half of the service points (51%) compared to Alcaraz’s 74% success rate. He also made more than twice as many unforced errors as the Spaniard (15 to 7) and had almost half of the winning balls (10 to 19).
