Carlos Alcaraz won Fede Delbonis in two sets (6-4 and 7-6(1)) in the match played this Friday, after it was postponed due to rain the previous day. The Murcian will face his last executioner, Matteo Berrettini, who beat Thiago Monteiro (6-4, 6-7, 6-3) in the quarterfinals of the Río Open. Whoever wins the match will return to the track for the second time this Saturday to play the semifinals in the last turn of the day.
An intense rain on Thursday in Rio forced Carlos Alcaraz’s match against Fede Delbonis to be suspended, when the Spaniard was preparing to close the first set with his serve (5-4, and 30-30 on the scoreboard). The match, on Brazilian clay, was postponed to Friday afternoon, although the rain once again did its thing and he could not play until midnight. The Spaniard concluded the task started the day before and scored the first round.
The second set was very tight, with several breaks on one side and the other of the net, but none managed to open a gap on the scoreboard, so the set was resolved in the tiebreak, where Alcaraz went one step further and took it with an ample result (7-6(1)). Thus, after one hour and forty-eight minutes of play, played over two days, the Murcian sealed the ticket to the quarterfinals of the Río Open 2022 where he will meet again with Berrettini.
Reunion with Berrettini
Carlos Alcaraz will face Matteo Berrettini this Saturday in the quarterfinals of the Brazilian tournament. The Italian made his debut with victory against local tennis player Thiago Monteiro (6-4, 6-7, and 6-3) in a duel that also suffered some breaks due to rain. In this way, in Brazil Alcaraz and Berrettini will meet again, protagonists of an epic battle in the third round of the Australian Open and that ended up taking the transalpine player in the fifth set.
It will be the third time that the faces are seen on the circuit, with a tie in the particular face-to-face. The match between Alcaraz and Berrettini, with the ticket to the semis at stake, is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. local time – 7:00 p.m. in Spain, as long as the rain allows it. In addition, the day would not have finished for the winner of this duel, who will have to jump back on the track again to play the semifinals of the tournament.
