Two hours and 23 minutes of a grueling struggle, to the tune of winning baseline broadsides, net runs and extreme defense. This and much more was the incredible quarterfinal between Carlos Alcaraz (No. 3 ATP) and Arthur Fils (No. 15) at the Rolex Monte Carlo Masters, the third “1000” of the season. After a rather crazy comeback, it was the Spaniard who came out on top and will thus play his first semifinal in the Principality. More than a few regrets for Fils, who succumbed with a score of 4-6 7-5 6-3 after several untaken chances in the last two partials.

Alcaraz, after a first set lost despite two breaks recovered (from the heavy 0-3), failed to raise his level with continuity, risking to finish several times down by a break. The first turning point came at 5-5 0-40 in the second set, where the Frenchman committed three consecutive free errors. Down 6-5, Fils then suffered a heavy psychological backlash, conceding three more points in a row and finding himself overruled by a stunning lob from the Spaniard on set point.

Even at the start of the third set, Fils was the more consistent player, except that he then experienced tension at the most important moment. Errors thus increased disproportionately just when he was ahead 3-1, and the last five games sealed the final verdict in favor of Alcaraz, who will thus be able to return to play a semifinal in a Masters 1000 on clay for the first time since the Mutua Madrid Open of 2023.

Igor Tudor spoke on the eve of the game against Lecce: “The group is fine, they have worked well. It&#8217s a bit of a short week, because we play immediately on Sunday and Saturday and it was different from the week before. We worked on everything though, coming from a fair, serious and good game. You can still see a little more confidence and more taste to do those things and confirm the things we did well and work on the aspects where we can still grow”.

“You work on everyone from a tactical point of view, but also on the head.Here every match has to be approached like a final. Every match and every practice has to be done at 100 percent. Tomorrow will be a super difficult competition and you are always playing against yourself. Everyone has to give his or her best to get to victory, and only in this way do we grow together”.

“I am not looking back. I am happy because I have found good-looking, clean-cut boys who have a desire to do. Their response surprised me positively”.

Saying about Capello&#8220s phrases: “I don&#8220t read anything. Capello I admire, I had him as a coach and he taught me a lot. I can say that I work with serious people. Conceiçao is a player I like a lot, he is strong, he can solve the race. I told him and the others who play less that I am sorry, but we only have one match a week. I told them to give me a hard time, they are all important. The two strikers are both strong, when we find some’ more balance I would like to see them together, it can be done”.

During the day, Mathieu Van der Poel reconnoitred the cobbled sections of the Paris-Roubaix classic scheduled for Sunday, but there remains some concern about his health.

Last Sunday, shortly after the conclusion of the Tour of Flanders in which he placed third, the former world champion revealed that he had been ill for three days, and therefore did not have an ideal approach to the ‘Ronde’. According to his sports director at Alpecin-Deceuninck, Christoph Roodhooft, the ’Dutchman“is not yet fully recovered”.

“Mathieu has been staying in Belgium and training normally, but his recovery is still not optimal – Roodhooft told, newspaper ‘Het Nieuwsblad’ -. This is probably also due to the strain of the Tour of Flanders. If you have just been sick, you feel the fatigue longer. But anyway, Sunday is Roubaix, and for him there will be a new chance”.