The difference is that the near to 14 days of not playing days before the Roland Garros tournament is what is important for most of the seeded players was to protect their seedings for the latter tournament. As such for Alcaraz was to get the number 1 ranking back - so as to be the number 1 seeding in the French Open and that is what will be the case on Monday next week.
mozart
Hall Of Fame
38146 posts
Big flat, deep ground shots, took away Alcaraz’s options and reduced him to the role of a rabbit. He was even outplayed in the drop shot stakes. So a qualifier dominates the world number one…if you thought Japan beating the Boks was embarrassing Mike, this was in the same league, maybe worse.
But it underscores everything I have said about the young Spaniard. Having nothing to improve isn’t necessarily a good thing and his real opposition isn’t a fading Big 3, but younger, faster, stronger kids like Marozsan. There will be waves of them.
The genius of the Big 3 is they all figured out how to deal with all challengers…for 15 years.