By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, November 15, 2023
Carlos Alcaraz won 32 of 34 first-serve points beating a bloodied Andrey Rublev 7-5, 6-2 for his first career ATP Finals win.
Photo credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty
Legendary boxer and avid recreational tennis player Sugar Ray Leonard calls tennis “boxing without violence.”
Sugar Ray may make an exception to that adage when it comes to Andrey Rublev.
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Swarming Rublev with stinging blows, Carlos Alcaraz stymied the red-haired Russian into beating himself bloody scoring a 7-5, 6-2 knockout at the ATP Finals in Turin today.
Alcaraz brought the pain on serve.
Mixing his spins and locations masterfully to befuddle the big-hitting Rublev, Alcaraz served 72 percent, won 32 of 34 first-serve points, pumped 5 aces and did not face a break point or commit a fault in a clean, confident conquest.
World No. 2 Alcaraz scored his first ATP Finals win, improving to 1-1 in the Red Group of the round-robin stage to keep his semifinal hopes alive, while Rublev falls to 0-2 in round-robin play and is eliminated from reaching the semifinals after dropping all four sets he’s played this week.
Alcaraz, who lost to Alexander Zverev 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-4 in his opener, has one final round-robin remaining against Medvedev. The third-seeded Medvedev meets Zverev in tonight's Red Group match with both seeking to secure a semifinal spot.
Given the stakes, this first meeting with Rublev provoked urgency in Alcaraz, who raised his 2023 record to 64-11, including a 10-5 mark vs. Top 10 opponents.
“Every match here could be the final of a Grand Slam so that’s the difference of coming into this tournament,” Alcaraz told Tennis Channel’s Prakash Amritraj afterward. “Your mind set has to change a little bit. Every match is a final you have to give your 100 percent before the match, the warm-up you have to think about the match, about the preparation and how it’s gonna be. I think that makes the difference between this tournament and the other ones.”
At times, Rublev looked like a man trying to punch out his own shadow lunging at the Alcaraz first serve without making clean contact. Festering frustration erupted in Rublev, the son of a boxer, who basically beat the crap out of his own knee with his Head racquet after dropping serve to start the second set.
Self-inflicted wounds weren’t Rublev’s biggest problem today. Alcaraz was impenetrable on serve and used the speedy surface to his advantage redirecting some rocket drives down the line. Alcaraz more than doubled the explosive Rublev’s winner total—21 to 10—and was battering the Russian’s second serve by the latter stages.
“I think the most difficult thing is how fast it is,” Alcaraz said of the blue Turin hard court. “We play the whole season, the tournament in hard court really, really slow. Coming here this is really fast.
“It’s a little bit difficult to adjust your level to this court but at the same time I like to be aggressive, I like to go to the net. That’s probably the best thing.”
On the fast Pala Alpitour court, the server was in control at the outset.
The Wimbledon winner Alcaraz won 16 of the first 18 points played on his serve, including a pair of love holds.
The frontcourt is normally not Rublev’s domain, but he pulled off a perfect serve-and-volley to cap a love hold for 4-3.
The Rublev second serve showed signs of frailty in the ninth game. Catching his toss a few times, Rublev decelerated on a second serve netting a double fault then saw Alcaraz flash a forehand crosscourt for the first break point of the match.
Rublev responded sliding a serve winner off the sideline to save break point. Despite delving into a Karol Kucera-esque tossing quandary, Rublev withstood it holding for 5-4.
The 20-year-old Spaniard torched the Rublev second serve to earn the break in the 11th game. Rublev pumped a serve down the T to save a break point only to see Alcaraz club a backhand return down the line off a 78 mph second serve for another break point. Hammering a deep return, Alcaraz pressured the red-haired Russian, who sprayed a backhand trying to change direction to drop serve.
Serving for the set at 6-5, Alcaraz accelerated. A serve winner wide and ace down the T gave the second seed double-set point.
Alcaraz lashed a forehand down the line closing the 42-minute first set with a clenched fist toward his box.
Mixing variety with vicious spin, Alcaraz served 76 percent, won 21 of 22 first-serve points, dropped only five points on serve and three of his five aces ended games in the set.
After netting a forehand to face break point, Rublev slammed his Head racquet to the court in a prelude of the volcanic eruption to come. When Rublev rages it can look like a tennis horror movie come to life: He misfired to drop serve in the opening game of the second set. Then Rublev went full Mikhail Youzhny mode slamming his Head racquet face off his left knee six times in a row drawing blood from a gash and groans from Turin fans in the process.
Remarkably, Rublev’s self-inflicted knee assault, while drawing blood, did not seem to cause lingering trauma—or if it did Rublev was too ticked off to let it show.
Thankfully, Rublev survived the self-beating though perhaps the ATP should brand future Rublev highlight reels with the disclaimer: “No pro was harmed in the making of this video…as far as we know.”
"Yeah, of course it's not easy because you always want to finish in a good way," Rublev said of a frustrating day. "Sometimes, yeah, you get disappointed when it's not happening.
"Today happen this thing that I get disappointed and couldn't manage."
Anticipating the Rublev inside-out forehand, Alcaraz was already moving to the spot when he hit a spectacular sliding backhand winner down the line for break point in the fifth game. Though Rublev withstood the stress, Alcaraz was back at it in the seventh game.
The 2023 ATP leader in return games won, Alcaraz battered Rublev backward with a series of biting returns for break point. Dancing around his backhand, Alcaraz slashed a return right off the baseline. That dazzle left Rublev dazed as Alcaraz broke for 5-2.
Alcaraz served out his first ATP Finals win at love closing in 74 minutes.