Carlos Alcaraz delights home crowd in Madrid Open final win
The world No. 2 defeated 'lucky loser' Jan-Lennard Struff to win his second, consecutive title at the event
Tennis
Tennis' world No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz of Spain captured his second-straight Madrid Open title Sunday (7 May), taking down Germany's lucky loser Jan-Lennard Struff.
Alcaraz came through in a tough three set battle, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
Struff got off to a rough start, losing his opening service game. Alcaraz went on to consolidate the break with an easy hold on his serve. But Struff refused to go away in the first set, handing Alcaraz three break points in the fourth game. Struff broke back at love to level the set at two all.
At three games all, Alcaraz broke Struff a second time, taking a 4-3 lead that he would not relinquish in the opening set, which Alcaraz won 6-4.
The determined German continued to fight in the second set, quickly getting to a 3-1 lead. Struff took more than 15 minutes to hold on to the fifth game, pushing his lead to 4-1 before Alcaraz won two games to close out the second set 6-3.
In the decisive final set, Alcaraz went up 4-1, winning the set at 6-3 to claim the title.
For Struff, it was just his second-ever final appearance. The 33-year-old is the first 'lucky loser' to advance to a Master's event final. Originally, he was bounced in the second round falling to Aslan Karatsev but injury withdrawals from the main draw granted him a berth to the tournament.
En route to the final, Struff faced Karatsev in the semi-final and bested him to advance.