Carlos Alcaraz barre to Safiullin

Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz beat Russian Roman Safiullin (6-4, 6-2) on Wednesday to advance to the quarter-finals at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, before returning to the court in the afternoon to seek the doubles semi-final with Rafa Nadal.

The tennis player from Murcia achieved his main objectives against the Russian Safiullin: to reach the quarter-finals and not wear himself out too much in the doubles with Nadal. All this in a match in which Alcaraz did not have to face any break points against him and in which he put pressure on every serve of his rival, breaking his serve up to four times.

The world number three had the best match of the tournament. He won five direct points on his serve and 80% of his first serves. In addition, the number of winners rose to 21 and he only made 11 unforced errors in the entire match. Alcaraz started the match in high spirits, aware that after the singles match he would have to face the doubles quarter-finals, and in the first game of the match he managed to break the Russian’s serve.

It would only be the beginning of a cyclonic game that swept over Safiullin to go 3-0 and two breaks up at the start, but the Russian would react by recovering one of the breaks in the fourth game. Despite this, and the fact that Alcaraz was unable to break the Russian’s serve again, the Spaniard ended up winning the first set 6-4 in 44 minutes of play, making the most of his great start.

Half the work was done, although the Murcia native had aspects to improve in the second set, such as the percentage of points won with his second serve – only 40% – or improving the number of unforced errors (7). After being on the bench, Alcaraz started the second set in the same way as the first, with a break in his favour, a break that he confirmed in the following game.

The match was still even, however, and both players managed to get stronger with their serves, until in the seventh game, Alcaraz dealt the final blow to the set and the match, achieving the second break of advantage and, in the next game, making it 6-2. Alcaraz lived up to expectations in an hour and a half, with the good sensations he has been displaying on the clay of Roland Garros, where he was champion a month and a half ago.

The El Palmar native, increasingly close to fighting for medals in his first Games, will face American Tommy Paul in the quarter-finals. He will also play another legendary doubles match with Rafa Nadal starting at 7:00 pm this evening.

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