Carlos Alcaraz defeats Casper Ruud to win the US Open final
In front of a capacity crowd, Carlos Alcaraz prevailed over Casper Ruud 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 to win the US Open final. The Chilean was an up and down player, sometimes going out of his way to be aggressive on his opponent, while on other times, he would be passive and take his time. In his first US Open the year before he had lost to Richard Gasquet in the final. In 2014 he had qualified for the final, where he would face Rafael Nadal. Here is a gallery of his most memorable games from the tournament.
Carlos Alcaraz had never beaten a top-10 player on clay until he defeated Juan Martin del Potro and Rafael Nadal on clay in 2014. On this occasion, he would face the World No 6, Casper Ruud.
What went into selecting this game?
If you look at the second set of the match you can see that there are some strange shots. When Raonic got to the net, there were people not even looking at him, and then just as he made contact, he was met in the net by Alcaraz’s forehand. And when Alcaraz broke to go ahead 1-0, it was very difficult for Raonic to get to the net.
I think that he got the forehand that he needed to get the level of play that he wanted. A typical Carlos Alcaraz shot. Once he won the point, everything started to happen for him.
If you look at the game, you can see Raonic’s forehand going through the net. Then you can see him on his back foot a little bit when he hits the net but still, the ball went over the net. That’s when Carlos Alcaraz came back to win the point.
When he took the net, he took a lot of balls. Alcaraz was able to stay there a little bit on his back foot and then keep the level of play that he wanted.
But you also said that the forehand went through the net. That is one of the most important shots in the game.
Yes. The first time that I played Carlos Alcaraz he had made the shot and he had won the point. But he had hit so many balls