By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
World no. 2 ranked male tennis player Carlos Alcaraz completed his revenge tour on Alexander Zverev after sweeping him in the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Open- 6.3, 6.1- on March 15, 2024, at Indian Wells, California.
A month has passed since Zverev eliminated Alcaraz from reaching the Australian Open grand finals and the Spanish sensation had nothing on his mind but payback.
Zverev only took care of Alcaraz in four sets last Australian Open. But this time, the 20-year-old Grand Slam champion avenged his loss with a more convincing 2-0 sweep at Indian Wells.
There was nothing that Zverev could do after Alcaraz went beast mode early in the first quarter, bullying him with his signature down-the-line forehand bombs while also dominating the net area.
Alcaraz learned a lot from his Australian Open loss to Zverev and he used those pointers to stop the German ace from getting any momentum.
Running out of any options, Zverev opted to play the defensive game in the second set and was throwing lobs to disrupt Alcaraz’s baseline fury.
However, Alcaraz didn’t bite into any of Zverev’s traps and maintained his high-octane attack from the baseline to the net.
Zverev pulled out one last trick from his sleeve and tried the serve-and-volley technique but Alcaraz officially shut the door when he scored another breakpoint to secure a comfortable lead.
After the match, Alcaraz wrapped up his performance with four tallied breakpoints and finished with an efficient 87% win-rate on his first service possessions.
Alcaraz will take a much-deserved one-day break before meeting Jannik Sinner, this year’s Australian Open champion, in the semifinal round.
