Five-Time Grand Slam Champion Cruises into U.S. Open Quarterfinal

World number two and five-time Grand Slam Champion Carlos Alcaraz of Spain was the picture of perfection against Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech today in the U.S. Open Championships Round of 16. Alcaraz had no issues in making quick work of Rinderknech, as he had in their previous two meetings; once occurring earlier in the year at the Queen’s Club Championship, a grass tournament. The Spaniard had an easy straight-set victory 7-6, 6-3, 6-4. The first set, a tie-break, was just under an hour alone— 58 minutes, where the entire match was just two hours and 12 minutes. 

Gamestyles & Strategies

Alcaraz’s rise to deserved notoriety in the short time since his debut can be attributed to many things, of course, as most of the top 10 players have to be well-rounded players to even hope to stand a chance in the cut-throat jungle of the ATP circuit. His physicality and speed are unrivaled, and they aid his solid groundstrokes greatly, helping him stay in high-intensity rallies while reaching all corners of the court. Rinderknech is a towering six-foot-five and plays the perfect tall man’s game. The Frenchman’s strength lies in his service. All his booming serves kept Alcaraz off-balance and struggling throughout the match, and he got 11 free, necessary points by the way of aces. In the first set, especially, some of the returns Alcaraz did manage to make were weak, short, and high, perfect poaching material for the Rinderknech, who often did just that. His serve average for the match was 112 mph. However, Rinderknech’s movement is far less spry and reactive than his opponent’s, who also has a formidable serve of his own; Alcaraz’s service speed average for this match clocked in at only two miles per hour behind at 110, and he had all the earlier-mentioned, more balanced tools and variety in his game. The two athletes took the first set to figure each other out, one obviously more than the other, but it was Alcaraz’s game once the tiebreak was had.

Why Alcaraz Had & Kept the Edge

The Spaniard capitalized on his own stellar movement and his opponent’s lack of it. He held his own service convincingly each game from beginning to end, especially since he was unable to break the Frenchman at any point at all in the first set until the tiebreak. Alcaraz was clinical and ruthless in his strategy; he hit big serves, struck wickedly angled shots to every corner while storming the net to defend them, and constantly hit ultra-short dropshots at a moment’s notice—always concealed to catch Rinderknech off-guard, of course. Both men held their serves easily, but only one man was getting drained and ran about the court in a manner he could not sustain— Rinderknech. Rallies were short in this match because the Frenchman simply couldn’t keep up he picked and chose which balls he chose to chase, whether to the net or if he remained defending the baseline for no more than four shots, and even that was over by the end of the match. 

Rinderknech’s fatigue poisoned his primary weapon that kept him afloat, his serve. The speed and consistency dropped significantly from what they had been, helping Alcaraz in breaking him easier, not that Alcaraz wasn’t working on his own to do so. The Spaniard began coming in to return the massive serves just on the baseline; the success rate was iffy, but it rattled Rinderknech even further, giving him less recovery time than the lanky Frenchman most definitely needed when his groundstrokes and movement are already not the most robust. He smartly tried to offset this somewhat by storming the net more, but Alcaraz is faster, both in reaction and swing, and he was able to pass him over and over, showing Rinkerknech the futility in his efforts. 

The match was well fought, but Alcaraz is the second-ranked men’s player in the world, with all his titles and accolades at age 22 for a reason. Rinderknech had no more solutions to offer, and Alcaraz comfortably completed his win. The Spaniard will next face Czech Jiri Lehecka, also his agemate at 23, on Tuesday in the Quarterfinals. The two have faced off three times before, and Alcaraz currently leads their head-to-head two to one. They last battled in the final of the Queen’s Club Championship earlier in the year. Alcaraz won the title in defeating Lehecka 7-5, 6-7, 6-2.