Carlos Alcaraz was given a relatively brutal draw at the 2024 Shanghai Masters, but he went past the first hurdle like it was nothing.
Coming into the last part of the season, it was unclear whether the young Spaniard would be able to win any more titles this year. Last year, his last title came at Wimbledon and in the season before, his last title triumph came at the US Open.
That means that before 2024, Alcaraz has never won a title after the US Open. This year, he changed it. First, he won the Laver Cup with Team Europe before clinching an individual trophy, winning the China Open after beating his main rival, Jannik Sinner, in the final.
After that, both had a very short turnaround to make it to the Shanghai Masters, but they did, and they were also helped by a decision from the tournament organizers, who postponed their matches by one day to give them proper time to recover.
That meant that on Saturday, October 5th, the two young superstars were given the first and the second match on the main court in Shanghai, as they will have to play also on Sunday.
Alcaraz was the first on the court and standing opposite to him was Chinese prodigy, who recently won his maiden title, Juncheng Shang, commonly known also as Jerry Shang.
That was a brutal draw for the four-time Grand Slam champion, given the support that Shang could rely on and the form that he was coming with into this match. Still, it didn’t matter.
Alcaraz started the match by winning nine consecutive points and that meant that only after a couple of minutes, the scoreboard showed 2-0 and 15-0 for the young Spaniard.
He couldn’t add the second break of serve in the third game of the set, but he didn’t even have to. In the first set, Alcaraz didn’t face a single break point. On top of that, he was able to break his opponent’s serve once more, winning the first set of the match easily, 6-2.
In the second set, the World No. 2 didn’t stop delivering magical moments. This time, Shang held his serve in the opening game, but he had the best seat in the house when witnessing a spectacular shot from his opponent at 15-15 in the following game.
It seemed that Alcaraz was successfully lobed by his opponent, but miraculously, he was able to chase down the ball and play an incredible shot to later win the rally and also the second game of the match.
That rally showed the Chinese player that who he was facing was almost unplayable. Alcaraz confirmed that by breaking Shang’s serve in the next game, leading already 2-1.
The Spanish player faced his only break point of the match in the following game, but he saved it, and also added another break of serve to lead 4-1 and after a hold already 5-1.
That was all he needed to comfortably win the match, 6-2, 6-2 and reach the third round of the 2024 Shanghai Masters. However, the brutality of the draw doesn’t end there, as he will now have to face yet another Chinese prodigy, Wu Yibing.
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