There aren’t a lot of firsts left for Carlos Alcaraz to achieve, but he got another one on Saturday: reaching the first indoor final of his career.
The four-time Grand Slam champion and former world No. 1 battled past Hubert Hurkacz, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3, to move through to the title match at the ATP 500 indoor hard-court event in Rotterdam.
He had previously been to the semifinals at three indoor tournaments but was stopped at that stage every time, first at Vienna in 2021 (falling to Alexander Zverev), then at Basel in 2022 (falling to Felix Auger-Aliassime) and at the ATP Finals in 2023 (falling to Novak Djokovic).
All three of those players went on to win those titles.
Alcaraz is now through to the 22nd tour-level final of his career, the previous 21 all coming outdoors. He went 16-5 in those finals.
More to come…
