Tomas Machac’s Stunning Victory over Alcaraz Sets Up Semi-final Clash With Jannik Sinner: Tennis Update 2024
Tomas Machac, a rising star from the Czech Republic, stunned world no. 2 Carlos Alcaraz with an incredible performance in the Shanghai Masters quarterfinals.
With his stunning 7-6 (5), 7-5 victory, the 23-year-old put an end to Alcaraz’s 12-match winning streak and set up an exciting semifinal matchup with Italian phenom Jannik Sinner.
At this Chinese competition, the Spaniard and the Italian will not play again their instantly iconic Beijing final.
We’ll have to wait a little while longer to see Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz collide again. The next match between Sinner and Tomas Machac, the Czech who defeated Alcaraz 7-6 (5), 7-5 in the Shanghai quarterfinals, won’t be delayed for very long.
The Spaniard’s 12-match winning streak, which included an exhilarating victory over Sinner in Beijing, comes to an end, but the 23-year-old’s incredible run at the ATP 1000 event continued. Machac defeated Tommy Paul in three sets during the round of 16, but his performance on Thursday was even more remarkable.
“I am playing the best tennis right now, for sure, so I knew that my level of play would be great,” Machac said. “I gave an amazing performance to beat Tommy Paul in our most recent match.”
Machac played the aggressive style of tennis required to counter Alcaraz in one hour and fifty-four minutes. At net, he won 19 of 20 points, and despite making 42 unintentional mistakes, his frame produced 31 winners.
Actually, it was a clean match between the two players; in fact, Alcaraz prevailed more often than Machac, winning 76% of first-serve points and 55% of second-serve points. But when it mattered most, the underdog was more polished. He won the first-set tiebreaker and saved seven of the eight break opportunities. Two breaks were sufficient to propel him over Alcaraz in two sets due to the extremely narrow margins.
Paul instructed Machac to “win this tournament, and to do so, he’ll need to overcome Sinner—and maybe Novak Djokovic, too? Before Machac triumphed, Sinner defeated Daniil Medvedev 6-1, 6-4.
However, nobody will like playing Machac at this time. Machac, who has recently advanced to the Tokyo semifinals and the fourth round of the US Open, is a hard-court specialist who attained a career-high ranking of No. 33. He advanced to his first career final on clay in Geneva earlier this year, as well as his first ATP Masters 1000 quarterfinal in Miami.
Who was his rival in South Florida that day? Sinner.
Although the Italian won 6-4, 6-2, Machac is prepared for his next opportunity.
“I am excited about it,” Machac remarked. “I’m glad I can play against the best [players] and I’m really enjoying it.”
