Carlos Alcaraz had to play ‘one of his best matches’ to down ‘unbelievable’ challenger
Carlos Alcaraz is still on track for the title at the Hamburg Open after ousting Filip Krajinovic in another testing encounter at the ATP 500 event.
Alcaraz defeated the Queen’s finalist 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 in a match where the score did not reflect the difficulties faced by the young Spaniard.
The world number six also came through a tricky match in the first round as he recovered from a set down to defeat home wildcard Nicola Kuhn.
“It was pretty tough,” Alcaraz admitted in his post-match interview. “Filip was playing unbelievable. He played really really well from the beginning until the end.
“I had to play one of my best matches on tour. I’m really happy with the performance and to be [into] the quarter-finals.”
Alcaraz was certainly in jeopardy in the first set in particular, facing four set points as Krajinovic served up 5-4.
But the Serb failed to take any of them, including hitting a seemingly simple winner wide off of an Alcaraz drop shot.
“He had chances to win the first set,” Alcaraz explained. “He had a really easy shot to win the first set and he [missed it]. So he let me [have] the chance to steal the set.
“It was pretty close.”
Nonetheless, it was impressive for Krajinovic to draw a performance from Alcaraz that the Spaniard described as one of his best considering the teenager now boasts a win-loss record of 37-5 so far in 2022.
Alcaraz faces Karen Khachanov next after the Russian seventh seed defeated former Hamburg champion Fabio Fognini to reach the quarter-finals.
The two men have already played this year, also on clay in the fourth round of the French Open, where Alcaraz won easily 6-1, 6-4, 6-4.
For more tournament information, made sure to check out our Hamburg Open 2022 Tournament Preview.
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