Champion Carlos Alcaraz, eliminated from the Madrid Open

Madrid. The Russian Andrey Rublev, world number eight, advanced to the semifinals of the Madrid Masters 1000 after beating the current double champion of the tournament, Carlos Alcaraz, 4-6, 6-3 and 6-2 this Wednesday.

Rublev, who had just lost in his first match in Barcelona, ​​came back to beat the Spaniard, world number three, in two hours, leaving the Madrid tournament without Spaniards, after Rafa Nadal’s defeat the day before.

“We didn’t think we were going to get where we have,” says Alcaraz

The world number three, Carlos Alcaraz, admitted this Wednesday that “it hurts to lose” in the quarterfinals against Andrey Rublev, but recalled that neither he nor his team planned to reach that stage of the competition when it began.

“To be honest, neither my team nor myself, when I arrived here and did my first training session, thought I was going to get to where I am,” Alcaraz said at a press conference after his defeat.

Alcaraz landed in Madrid after being absent in Monte Carlo and Barcelona due to discomfort in his right forearm.

“The first time I touched a racket was here. Getting where I have gotten, the games I have played with high intensity, I would have already signed them,” said Alcaraz.

“It’s a very positive week, a day before I didn’t know if I was going to be able to play, we have reached the quarterfinals, we have played great games, at a good level, in general it has been positive,” said the world number three.

“Once I get on the court I don’t like to lose, but if we look at the overall count, it has been a very good week,” added the Spaniard.

Alcaraz admitted, however, that “it hurts to lose, it hurts to have options and not take advantage of them” against Rublev.

The winner of two Grand Slams stated that “perhaps mentally I have been weaker than at other times. It hurts me to have options and not take advantage of them, especially when it is because of me, because of silly mistakes, because of mistakes that don’t matter, that’s when I hit myself.” of whipping myself.”

“Someone like Andrey offers you few opportunities in the game and when you have them and you miss balls that don’t touch, well in the end it hurts, and that’s what happened to me today,” he explained.

Alcaraz also considered that he has matured in recent times, but that he maintains the freshness with which he burst onto the circuit.

“The reason I have been number one is because of the joy of my game, for perhaps not giving importance to certain moments, but in the end, I am maturing, I am growing, I am giving importance perhaps to certain moments that I didn’t before,” he said.

“I must continue to have that joy, that freshness in my game, but perhaps in my head, at certain moments, I give importance or handle situations differently than I have been doing. I hope for the better,” he said.