Carlos Alcaraz has reached his maiden Monte Carlo Masters semi-final and he had to do it the hard way as he found himself behind in each of the three sets against Arthur Fils in the quarter-final.<\/p>\n
Four-time Grand Slam winner Alcaraz<\/a> was 0-3 down in the first set, 5-5 [0-40] in the second set and 1-3 behind in the deciding set but he somehow managed to come away with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory and a place in the last four.<\/p>\n The Spaniard\u2019s previous best performance at the ATP Masters 1000 event was a second-round appearance in 2022 as he missed the two most recent editions due to injury.<\/p>\n But he now finds himself just two wins away from a maiden Monte Carlo Masters title with compatriot Alejandro Davidovich Fokina up next after he beat Alexei Popyrin.<\/p>\n Asked about getting out of trouble in all three sets, Alcaraz said: \u201cI was just wanted to stay strong\u2026 Waited for my chances. I felt in the first set he played well. Probably a few mistakes from my side.<\/p>\n \u201cHis level is pretty high right now. He puts a lot of pressure on his opponents. I could feel it. I think in some moments he made a few mistakes and I tried to make the most of it. Just tried to wait for my chances and tried to take it.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the second set I saved break points at 5-5. In the third set I tried to stay there, playing good tennis. When I was a break down I tried to keep going, playing aggressively. Be strong mentally, physically, and waiting for my chances.\u201d<\/p>\n ATP Madrid Open 2025 Entry List: Zverev, Alcaraz, Djokovic, Fritz the top seeds<\/a><\/p>\n WATCH: Full trailer for \u2018Carlos Alcaraz: My Way\u2019 revealed \u2013 with star cameos<\/a><\/p>\n The 21-year-old, who turns 22 on May 5, is into his 10th ATP Masters 1000 semi-final and he has joined an exclusive club of players to reach double figures before turning 22.<\/p>\n The great Rafael Nadal is well clear at No 1 as he reached the last four of 18 Masters events before turning 22 with Novak Djokovic next best on 13 and Lleyton Hewitt on 12.<\/p>\n He won\u2019t move up on that list as the next ATP Masters 1000 event semi-final, the Italian Open, will take place after his birthday.<\/p>\n But one place where he could move up in the next few days is the ATP Rankings as he has closed the gap to Alexander Zverev in second place.<\/p>\n Jannik Sinner is untouchable at No 1 as he is on 9,930 points at the top of the Live Rankings while Zverev is on 7,595 points after his second-round exit.<\/p>\n Alcaraz has moved to 7,120 points and he will add another 250 points if he wins his semi-final while a title will run will push him to 7,720 points and help him to reclaim No 2 spot.<\/p>\n The post Carlos Alcaraz edges closer to Alexander Zverev in rankings with Monte Carlo feat<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Carlos Alcaraz has reached his maiden Monte Carlo Masters semi-final and he had to do it the hard way as he found himself behind in each of the three sets against Arthur Fils in the quarter-final. Four-time Grand Slam winner Alcaraz was 0-3 down in the first set, 5-5 [0-40] in the second set and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}ATP News<\/h3>\n
ATP Rankings Boost<\/h4>\n