Like a lot of Alcaraz matches, it may have taken longer than it should have, but he gathered himself when he had to. He hit 31 winners to Rublev’s 14, and he had his drop shot working.
“I had many options on my mind,” he said. “If I move well, run well from the baseline, I have more options. I’m really happy that ‘Option A’ of just running and playing good points from the baseline, I made it happen.”
Alcaraz also admitted what some had noticed this fall: He has tweaked his backhand by abbreviating the take-back. He said he hadn’t talked to his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, about it, and hadn’t really practiced it.
“I just started to feel comfortable doing it, without thinking about it,” he said. “I just did it a little bit different, and it started to feel well.”
Maybe that’s Alcaraz in a nutshell: If it feels good, he does it, and in the end it usually works out well.
