Back in business! Alcaraz sinks Rublev at Nitto ATP Finals

p After a rocky start to his a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/nitto-atp-finals/605/overview'Nitto ATP Finals/a, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/carlos-alcaraz/a0e2/overview'Carlos Alcaraz/a is up and running in Turin. /p

p The Spaniard eased past a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/andrey-rublev/re44/overview'Andrey Rublev/a 6-3, 7-6(8) on Wednesday afternoon at Inalpi Arena in an impressive response to his chastening opening defeat to a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/casper-ruud/rh16/overview'Casper Ruud/a. Alcaraz, who struggled with a stomach issue against Ruud, was back to his physical, energetic best in his 96-minute win against Rublev. /p

p “I surprised myself,” said Alcaraz, when asked about his performance despite feeling under the weather. “The way that I played today from the baseline, with my serve. I was really calm. I just tried to be focused on my game and what I had to do and forget about that I’m not feeling well and that I’m sick. /p

p “Once you step on the court, you have to forget everything, your struggles outside the court, and you try to put your focus on hitting a good forehand, a good backhand, and making good tactics against the opponent. I thought I did that pretty well, and surprised myself.” /p

blockquote class="twitter-tweet"p lang="en" dir="ltr"DOMINANT CARLOS ????br /br /No. 3 seed a href="https://twitter.com/carlosalcaraz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@carlosalcaraz/a finds the strength within and keep his hopes alive of survival with a vital victory over Rublev! a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NittoATPFinals?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#NittoATPFinals/a a href="https://t.co/2PIKTtRnir"pic.twitter.com/2PIKTtRnir/a/pmdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1856710836217127240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"November 13, 2024/a/blockquote script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"/script

p Sporting a pink nasal strip to aid his breathing, Alcaraz took control of Wednesday’s encounter by reeling off four consecutive games from 2-3 in the first set. He was assisted in that sequence by some wayward ballstriking from Rublev, who regained his composure to compete well in a second set featuring no break points but was nonetheless unable to deny Alcaraz a straight-sets victory. /p

p The a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/roland-garros/520/overview'Roland Garros/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a champion Alcaraz kept his cool in the second-set tie-break, saving set points at 5/6 and 7/8 before closing out victory to take a 2-1 lead in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series against Rublev. The Spaniard’s previous victory against the World No. 8 also came in a a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/nitto-atp-finals/605/overview'Nitto ATP Finals/a group-stage encounter, at the 2023 edition of the prestigious season finale. /p

p /p

div class="riddle2-wrapper" data-rid-id="aECeCWu6" data-auto-scroll="true" data-is-fixed-height-enabled="false" data-bg="#fff" data-fg="#00205b" style="margin:0 auto; max-width:100%; width:640px;"script src="https://www.riddle.com/embed/build-embedjs/embedV2.js"/scriptiframe title="2024 a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/nitto-atp-finals/605/overview'Nitto ATP Finals/a Quiz" src="https://www.riddle.com/embed/a/aECeCWu6?lazyImages=falsestaticHeight=false" allow="autoplay" referrerpolicy="strict-origin"section data-block="SingleChoice"h3Who has won the most a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/nitto-atp-finals/605/overview'Nitto ATP Finals/a titles?/h3ullia href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/roger-federer/f324/overview'Roger Federer/a/lilia href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/pete-sampras/s402/overview'Pete Sampras/a/lilia href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/novak-djokovic/d643/overview'Novak Djokovic/a/li/ul/sectionsection data-block="SingleChoice"h3True or False: Top seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jannik-sinner/s0ag/overview'Jannik Sinner/a is trying to become the first Italian singles champion in a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/nitto-atp-finals/605/overview'Nitto ATP Finals/a history./h3ulliTrue/liliFalse/li/ul/sectionsection data-block="SingleChoice"h3The season finale is currently held in Turin. In which city was the event held before moving to Italy?/h3ulliLondon/liliShanghai/liliSydney/li/ul/sectionsection data-block="SingleChoice"h3Which player competing in this edition of the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/nitto-atp-finals/605/overview'Nitto ATP Finals/a has won the tournament the most times?/h3ullia href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/daniil-medvedev/mm58/overview'Daniil Medvedev/a/lilia href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alexander-zverev/z355/overview'Alexander Zverev/a/lilia href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jannik-sinner/s0ag/overview'Jannik Sinner/a/li/ul/sectionsection data-block="SingleChoice"h3After which doubles players are the round-robin doubles groups named?/h3ullia href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/todd-woodbridge/w136/overview'Todd Woodbridge/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/mark-woodforde/w035/overview'Mark Woodforde/a/lilia href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/peter-fleming/f030/overview'Peter Fleming/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/john-mcenroe/m047/overview'John McEnroe/a/lilia href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/bob-bryan/b588/overview'Bob Bryan/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/mike-bryan/b589/overview'Mike Bryan/a/li/ul/sectionsection data-block="SingleChoice"h3One player in Turin this year has competed in six consecutive editions of the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/nitto-atp-finals/605/overview'Nitto ATP Finals/a. Who is it?/h3ullia href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alexander-zverev/z355/overview'Alexander Zverev/a/lilia href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/andrey-rublev/re44/overview'Andrey Rublev/a/lilia href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/daniil-medvedev/mm58/overview'Daniil Medvedev/a/li/ul/sectionsection data-block="SingleChoice"h3Which player is making his a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/nitto-atp-finals/605/overview'Nitto ATP Finals/a debut?/h3ullia href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/casper-ruud/rh16/overview'Casper Ruud/a/lilia href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/taylor-fritz/fb98/overview'Taylor Fritz/a/lilia href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alex-de-minaur/dh58/overview'Alex de Minaur/a/li/ul/sectionsection data-block="SingleChoice"h3ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by PIF honours have already been clinched. To whom did the award go?/h3ullia href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jannik-sinner/s0ag/overview'Jannik Sinner/a/lilia href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/carlos-alcaraz/a0e2/overview'Carlos Alcaraz/a/lilia href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alexander-zverev/z355/overview'Alexander Zverev/a/li/ul/section/iframe/div

p Even when up against one of the ATP Tour’s most powerful baseline hitters, Alcaraz’s ability to win points from all corners of the court stood out. He struck 31 winners to Rublev’s 14, a tally which included plenty of trademark drop shots and scintillating forehand passes from deep. /p

p “I feel like in the last matches I couldn’t hit good drop shots, and I was thinking, ‘What’s going on?’,” said Alcaraz. “My style, my game, it’s about playing these kinds of shots and enjoying the game. So I tried to do it today. I felt pretty good from the baseline too, running. /p

p “I had many options on my mind. If I move well, run well from the baseline, I have more options. I’m really happy that ‘Option A’ of just running and playing good points from the baseline, I made it happen.” /p

p /p

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p Alcaraz was also dominant on serve en route to rejuvenating his bid for a fifth tour-level title of 2024. He did not face a break point and won 84 per cent (37/44) of points behind his first delivery, according to Infosys ATP Stats. /p

p Next up for the 21-year-old as he chases a Turin semi-final spot for the second consecutive year is a clash against a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alexander-zverev/z355/overview'Alexander Zverev/a on Friday. As well as potentially deciding who advances to the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/nitto-atp-finals/605/overview'Nitto ATP Finals/a knockout stage, that clash could also be crucial in the battle to finish the year as World No. 2. Zverev is currently second in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, 505 points clear of third-placed Alcaraz. /p

p [NEWSLETTER FORM] /p