Nicolás Jarry stops Carlos Alcaraz’s dream of a second trophy in Buenos Aires
BUENOS AIRES – The tennis balls suffered with the match of hyper-powered strokes between Nicolás Jarry and Carlos Alcaraz. The Chilean was the winner of an electrifying and very varied match on a warm afternoon in Buenos Aires.
Jarry won 7-6 (2), 6-4 over the 20-year-old in a match with an expected atmosphere: the Argentinean crowd passionately cheered Alcaraz, and at times became a challenge for the Chilean as the people made their presence felt between his first and second serves.
Alcaraz has not much to reproach himself for. Jarry was very offensive and constantly bothered the Spaniard’s game. It is not surprising that in a 250 tournament the world number two loses to the world number 20. Even less if the Chilean’s game reached its peak with his ultra-offensive formula and gave little rhythm to the Wimbledon champion.
Nicolás Jarry pasó a la final del Argentina Open
Jarry will battle for the tittle this Sunday against one of the guests of the tournament, the Argentine Facundo Diaz Acosta, champion of the Pan American Games Santiago 2023. With the victory over Alcaraz, the 28-year-old tennis player emulated his grandfather Jaime Fillol, who lost the final at the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club against Guillermo Vilas in 1976. He would later repeat his defeat in the same instance and against the same opponent in 1977. Today, the Central Court of the BALTC bears the name of the Argentine legend.
A Chilean will once again play for the title in Buenos Aires after 22 years. In 2002, Nicolás Massú won the trophy by turning around an impressive match against Agustín Calleri. The current captain of the Chilean Davis Cup team was loosing that final by 6-2 and 5-1. He ended up winning his first ATP title with a memorable 2-6, 7-6(5) and 6-2.
Trip to Rio without the second ‘mate‘ trophy
Alcaraz leaves Buenos Aires without being able to defend the title he won in 2023. Will he return to Argentina in 2025? There are indications that he will not.
The Spaniard signed a two-season contract last year to play the ATP 500 in Rio de Janeiro. His coming to South America was prompted mainly by the injury that took him out of the 2023 Australian Open. The Latin American clay provided a good stage to start that season. The signature on the contract with the Brazilian event brought him indirectly to Buenos Aires.
Carlos Alcaraz won the trophy with the tradicional Argentinian mate in 2023 // ARGENTINA OPEN
His coach Juan Carlos Ferrero gave some signals in conversation with CLAY: “We’ll think about it later. It is true that at some point I would like Carlos to play on the fast courts, because I think he can do very well in those tournaments, they are always very competitive events and at the moment you don’t change the surface after Australia and before Indian Wells for just two tournaments. It’s going from hard to clay, then back to hard and back to clay in Europe. At some point we’ll do the hard court tournaments for sure.”
“It’s been a complicated tournament. I know it was going to struggle. I didn’t take advantage of the opportunities against Jarrry, but it’s true that he has a style of play that is very difficult to face when he is locked in. He can beat any player in the world. I still take a lot of good things from this tournament,” Alcaraz said at the press conference.
The two-time Grand Slam winner will travel tomorrow to the Brazilian city to make his debut on Monday against local player Thiago Monteiro.
COVER PHOTO: ARGENTINA OPEN
