Stefanos Tsitsipas was 'desperate' when he hit the ball at Carlos Alcaraz in Barcelona, says Alex Corretja
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Updated 27/04/2022 at 10:47 GMT
There was a flashpoint at the end of the first set in the quarter-final meeting between Carlos Alcaraz and Stefanos Tsitspas at the Barcelona Open as the world No. 5 hit the ball towards his opponent at the net. Alcaraz, who won the match in three sets and went on to win the title, stared at his opponent afterwards and two-time French Open finalist Alex Corretja has given his view on the incident.
Tsitsipas got 'desperate' in Barcelona flashpoint with Alcaraz - Corretja
Alex Corretja believes Stefanos Tsitsipas was “desperate” when he appeared to hit the ball at Carlos Alcaraz during their quarter-final clash at the Barcelona Open.
Tsitsipas was down 5-4 and 40-0 when he ran to pick up a volley on his forehand side.
With Alcaraz at the net, Tsitsipas fired the ball back straight down the middle of the court, forcing his opponent to duck out of the way.
Alcaraz stared down Tsitsipas as he went to his chair while the Barcelona crowd made their feelings clear as they whistled and booed the world No. 5.
“I was very surprised to see Alcaraz dictating so much against Tsitsipas,” two-time French Open finalist Corretja told Eurosport.
“Someone who just won Monte Carlo and is usually very aggressive, but he struggled so much on the backhand side and from Stefanos’ point of view you can see he was desperate, that’s why on that ball he ran and he was just trying to hit as hard as he could to probably just to tell the guy ‘OK, leave me alone, you’re pushing me so much’.
“And it was, I think, sort of like a desperate reaction from Stefanos. And I also liked a lot the way Alcaraz behaved at that moment because he looked at him like ‘OK, no fear, I’m not scared of you, I’m beating you and that’s what I’m doing with my tactics’.
“He mixed it up very well. He showed a lot of personality and at the same time he was brave and ready to fight.”
Alcaraz came through the match to improve his head-to-head record against Tsitsipas to 3-0.
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“He started in Barcelona with a lot of doubts and you could see he was a little bit nervous,” said Corretja.
“But as the tournament went on he was firing up himself, he got the crowd with him and after he beat Tsitsipas you could tell he was ready to win the tournament, even if he struggled so such and won by a miracle against [Alex] De Minaur [in the semi-finals] I think he was ready to do it.
“And mentally he showed that he learned so much through the whole week because he had doubts, then he gets back, then he suffered and he ended up enjoying the tournament.”
After beating Tsitsipas, Alcaraz saved two match points before overcoming Alex de Minaur in the semi-finals. He then swept past fellow Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta in straight sets in the final.
“Against De Minaur he felt bad on the court because his opponent was hitting so fast, so deep, didn’t let him dictate a lot,” reflected Corretja.
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“And he also had the feeling like ‘OK, this is my chance to win the tournament’ and that’s why he was a bit more anxious than normal. He didn’t feel like the ball that well, but as soon as he won that semi-final, you could see the first ball he touched in the final I was like ‘he is going to cruise’.
“Because you can see that he was putting the ball wherever he liked with the forehand, backhand, drop shot, he was serving well, returning with a lot of pressure, and he was flying on the court.
“When you are 18, these sort of things, you don’t think that much, and the fact he didn’t have that much time between semi-final and final didn’t let him think too much about the tournament itself in Barcelona, which was such a big moment for him.
"So he just went for it and played perfect tennis because to win 6-3 6-2 against Carreno in the final you need to be very good because Carreno is a great contender, a lot of balls in the court. If you beat him like that in the final it means your level is very high. And that’s why Carlos is so confident because he depends a lot on his game.”
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