ATP Tour

Alcaraz overcomes 16-point wobble to reach Tokyo final

Carlos Alcaraz had to recover from a calamitous end to the first set and withstand an inspired Jaume Munar on Monday at the Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships, but the defending champion ultimately found his way through to return to the final in Tokyo.

The top-seeded Alcaraz recovered from dropping 16 consecutive points at the end of the first to prevail 5-7, 6-3, 6-1 in the semi-finals of the ATP 500 event. After another difficult outing on serve, Alcaraz found his range midway through the second set, lifting his level and energising the Tokyo crowd to reach his fourth tour-level final of the season, and first since Monte-Carlo in April.

“I don’t know what happened in the first set,” Alcaraz, who will next face Valentin Vacherot or Jiri Lehecka, said. “I started the match well. I was up a break and serving for the set. It seems that I’m struggling in every first set… But I've come back every time and I’m really happy about it.”

The No. 64-ranked qualifier Munar impressed for large parts of the contest, using his defence to frustrate Alcaraz before finding opportunities to turn the exchanges on their head with his own aggressive play. But Alcaraz eventually had too many answers, extending his winning streak at the ATP 500 event to nine matches after he lifted the trophy on his tournament debut last year.

Alcaraz missed four-and-a-half months of this season due to a right wrist injury before returning at the US Open, where he reached the quarter-finals before falling to Ben Shelton in a five-set epic. The No. 3 player in the PIF ATP Rankings then defeated Taylor Fritz at the Laver Cup and reached the Tokyo semi-finals having been pushed to a first-set tie-break in each of his first three matches in Japan.

Against Munar, Alcaraz was forced to find another gear after watching 16 straight points — and ultimately the opening set — disappear from a 5-3 lead. The 23-year-old finally halted the run in the opening game of the second set, responding with an ironic celebration towards the crowd.

The celebration proved to be the spark he needed. Alcaraz began to turn the momentum in the longer rallies that Munar had dominated earlier in the match, forcing his opponent further behind the baseline and levelling the contest. In the decider, the top seed reached deeper into his shot-making arsenal to seal a two-hour, 30-minute victory and improve to 4-1 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series.

“Jaume is a pretty tough player to play against and these conditions suit him well,” Alcaraz said. “I’m just happy that in the second set, I tried to stay there. I made a couple of breaks that helped a lot to get a bit of confidence, then I started to play more aggressively.”

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Alcaraz has now won his past 16 matches against fellow Spaniards, with his last defeat to a countryman coming against Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals of the ATP Masters 1000 event in Indian Wells in 2022.