It was an incredible month for Spanish tennis star Carlos Alcaraz. The 18-year-old made it to the semi-finals of Indian Wells and went on to clinch his first-evert Masters 1000 title in Miami. Even before the start of the tournament, Alcaraz was hyped up by tennis fans to do something big at the Hard Rock stadium and the youngster proved just the same.
Carlos defeated Casper Ruud in straight sets, 7-5, 6-4 and became the youngest ever Masters 1000 champion. If there’s a person that has been with Alcaraz in his journey so far, it’s his coach and former player Juan Carlos Ferrero. The Spanish tennis legend lost his father few days ago but flew back from his hometown to Miami to just be with Alcaraz for the final.
Carlos Alcaraz gave an emotional embrace to coach Juan Carlos Ferrero after winning Miami Open title
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The love and mutual admiration shared between the two was visible when Carlos won the match as he rushed towards his box to give a hug to Ferrero. It’s in this moment that Ferrero got emotional as he could be seen tearing up with pride after seeing the monstrous achievement of his pupil.
We're not crying, you're crying ❤️
@alcarazcarlos03 @juankiferri #MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/f5mRWKII5v
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) April 3, 2022
It was the ‘moment of the tournament’ after what Ferrero has been through this week and will forever be etched in his memory. While this is just the start of a wonderful journey to the top for Alcaraz, the young Spaniard has always got the backing of stars like Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer, who believed that the 18-year-old is bound to make history for one day in tennis.
Alcaraz’s aggression became too good for Casper Ruud in Miami
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Coming to the match against Ruud, Alcaraz initially struggled to get his game right and this gave enough room for Casper Ruud to launch the attack. The Norwegian was sitting comfortably at 4-1 before the Spaniard got things back in control by dialing up his aggressive baseline game and ran away with the first set, 7-5.
Continuing the momentum from the first set, the Spaniard got off to a quick-fire lead of 3-0 and appeared extremely confident to close out the match quickly. But, Casper got one of his breaks back and tried to put up a stern fight.
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By this time, Alcaraz became quite comfortable on his serve and he capitalized on the single break to close out the match and win his first-ever Miami Open title.