{"id":154327,"date":"2022-05-07T20:22:22","date_gmt":"2022-05-07T18:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/?p=154327"},"modified":"2022-05-07T21:04:37","modified_gmt":"2022-05-07T19:04:37","slug":"madrid-masters-alcaraz-edges-out-novak-in-three-set-thriller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/news\/tennis\/madrid-masters-alcaraz-edges-out-novak-in-three-set-thriller\/","title":{"rendered":"Madrid Masters: Alcaraz edges out Novak in three-set thriller"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In the first ATP H2H meeting between top seed Novak Djokovic and home favourite Carlos Alcaraz, the 19-year-old Spaniard prevailed in a thrilling three-set battle.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The seventh seed came from behind to beat the three-time former champion 6-7 (5), 7-5, 7-6 (5) in three hours and 35 minutes on Manolo Santana Stadium on Saturday to reach the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.madrid-open.com\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mutua Madrid Open<\/a> final.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Novak took the first set, but Alcaraz bounced back in the second. The Next Gen ATP World Tour Finals titlist secured the win by clinching a third set tie-break.<\/p>\n<p>The quality of tennis was absolutely sensational. The contest was a tight affair all the way through. Amazing rallies and stunning points kept the spectators on the edge of their seats.<\/p>\n<p>Alcaraz produced another impressive display at La Caja M\u00e1gica as he came back from a set down to prevail over the 20-time Grand Slam winner, becoming the first ever player to defeat both Djokovic and Nadal at the same tournament on clay.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8220;He held his nerves very well. For somebody of his age to play so maturely and courageously is impressive. He deserved to win,&#8221;<\/strong> Novak said.<\/p>\n<p>Match statistics: aces (8-4), double faults (2-4), winners (24-51), unforced errors (31-57), total points won (131-134).<\/p>\n<p>Defending champion Alexander Zverev (GER, 2) and Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE, 4) will close out the day&#8217;s play in the second semi-final clash.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Next competition for Novak will be the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.internazionalibnlditalia.com\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Internazionali BNL d\u2019Italia<\/a> (May 8-15).<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The five-time former titlist reached semi-finals at the Rome Masters last year, when he suffered a 6-7, 3-6 defeat to Rafael Nadal.<\/p>\n<p>The Italian Open will be the last warm-up event leading into the Roland Garros. The second Grand Slam tournament of the season takes place in Paris (May 22 to June 5).<\/p>\n<p><em>Photo: Profimedia<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Carlos Alcaraz beat the world no.1 in an epic battle, 6-7 (5), 7-5, 7-6 (5) to reach the final in Madrid. Next tournament for Novak will be the Internazionali BNL d\u2019Italia (May 8-15).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":154329,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[101012177,101013238,101012203,101011267,101013236,101010433,101012235],"class_list":["post-154327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennis","tag-atp-1000-en","tag-carlos-alcaraz","tag-madrid-en","tag-masters-1000-en","tag-mutua-madrid-open-2022-en","tag-semifinal-en","tag-spain-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154327"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":154385,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154327\/revisions\/154385"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}