MELBOURNE, Australia — World No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz lost in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, going down to No. 6 seed Alexander Zverev in four enthralling sets, 6-1, 6-3, 6-7(2), 6-4.
Alcaraz had already achieved a career-best result in Melbourne coming into the quarterfinal matchup, but Zverev jumped out early to take the first two sets.
Alcaraz fought back in the third — breaking Zverev who was serving for the match at 5-3 — but was unable to sustain his level in the fourth, bowing out in Melbourne in three hours and six minutes.
Here are three key takeaways from the match.
Zverev played lights-out tennis early
Sometimes you just need to credit the opponent for playing well. While a lot of the attention was on the Spaniard and whether he could challenge Novak Djokovic for his second Slam title, Zverev swooped in and played arguably two of the best sets of tennis seen in Melbourne in some time, and possibly his best to date.
On the local telecast, commentator Todd Woodbridge said Zverev was striking the ball as well as he’d ever seen. Through two sets, Zverev had just nine unforced errors, while Alcaraz, who started the match slowly and almost lethargically, hit 22.
Zverev’s serving, too, was on another level. After two sets, the German was hitting 90% of his first serves, winning 84% of those points. And on the four occasions Zverev had to conjure a second serve? He won all four points — barely giving Alcaraz a look in his service games.
After breaking to love in Alcaraz’s first service game, the momentum was with Zverev as he hunted winners and forced Alcaraz to uncomfortable positions on the court, and it clearly rattled the Spaniard, who only really started to get a grip on the contest midway through the third set.
Alcaraz got off to a slow start
It never bodes well when a player double-faults the first service point of his match, and that’s exactly what Alcaraz did, to murmurings around Rod Laver Arena.
It didn’t get any better. Alcaraz was broken to love in his first…
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