Carlos Alcaraz sweeps away Alexander Zverev to win his second Masters 1000, aged just 19

How far can Carlos Alcaraz go? After two boss victories against Rafael Nadal then Novak Djokovic in the quarter and semi-finals of the Madrid tournament, the Spanish prodigy offered himself Alexander Zverev in the final (6-3, 6-1), in just over an hour of play, Sunday May 8. At the same time, he won the second Masters 1000 of his career, a month and a half after his victory in Miami. More powerful, more creative, Alcaraz has outclassed the world number 3. Enough to panic the tennis world even more, less than two weeks before the start of Roland-Garros.

The Spaniard, who has just celebrated his 19th birthday, left only crumbs to his evening opponent. He started with an incredible first run, dispatched in just 31 minutes, to get on track and take control of the final. He did not let them go, and inflicted a 6-1 sec on an overwhelmed Zverev in the second set.

Because opposite, the German stammered his tennis. The one Madrid usually do pretty well at (titled in 2018 and 2021) never existed on Sunday night. No doubt tired by his semi-final ended late in the night against Tsitsipas, Zverev could only register four short games before giving up. “Right now you are the best player in the world,” he told his opponent just after the end of the match.

Thanks to this first prestigious success on clay, Carlos Alcaraz presents himself as one of the big favorites for the 2022 edition of Roland-Garros, which begins in two weeks. Especially in light of his roster this week, which successively includes boxing specialist Nadal, and world numbers 1 and 3 Djokovic and Zverev. Eliminated in the third round in 2021, the Spaniard can get a first benchmark result this year on Parisian clay. Alexander Zverev for his part will attack the Porte d’Auteuil tournament with a little more doubt, after a good start to the season on clay (semi-final in Monte-Carlo, final in Madrid), but without ever confirming with a final success .