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Carlos Alcaraz struggles to find himself as world number one. The Spanish tennis player, after the victory of the US Open, was the author of not indifferent slips: the defeat against Felix Auger-Aliassime in the Davis Cup first, and then repeated himself in Nur-Saltan, where he presented himself as the first seed of a draw. luxury.
In the first round of the Astana Open, he was defeated at the hands of the lucky loser, David Goffin; two sets were enough for the former world number seven to win against the Grand Slam winner. The first and second set were two apparently similar storylines: the Belgian made little mistakes, even giving spectacular shots; the Spaniard, on the other hand, was in confusion and often out of control.
The defeat in Kazakhstan against David Goffin, however, also hides the end of a fact that made his 2022, in particular, extraordinary: from the Masters 1000 in Paris-Bercy onwards, Carlos Alcaraz has always won a set in all matches he has disputed, won or lost that they have been.
The final of last season cannot tell us about this statistic, given that the world number one has won all the games he has played since the end of the French 1000 title: these are all the challenges that have seen him protagonist in the Next Gen Atp Finals.
In 2022, however, there were ten defeats: in each of them, he won at least one set.
Goffin breaks a one-year streak
Three of these defeats come from the first three Grand Slam titles; therefore, in a match where the best of five is played: in all three cases, no 3-0 immediately.
The impressive figure, however, concerns the matches he lost in best-of-three tournaments: in seven of these, he always snatched a set. He happened in the Masters 1000 that he didn’t win: against Nadal in Indian Wells, against Korda in Monte Carlo, against Tommy Paul in Montreal, against Cameron Norrie in Cincinnati.
Same script followed also in the two finals lost against Jannik Sinner in Umag and Lorenzo Musetti in Hamburg, in both cases winning the tiebreak: against the first, Alcaraz had managed to snatch the first set, but in vain; against the second it was the second set.
The statistic ends with the defeat against Felix Auger-Aliassime in the Davis Cup, also in this case by winning the tiebreak.
Photo credits: @carlosalcaraz (Twitter)
