Alcaraz celebrates 20th birthday with return to Madrid final

On the attack during most of his semifinal win at the Madrid Open Carlos Alcaraz produced his best slice after the matchAlcaraz was presented with a cake on center court to celebrate his 20th birthday on Friday after beating 17thseeded Borna Coric 64 63After staring at the gargantuan cake whose top was shaped like a tennis ball crowned by the number 20 Alcaraz took a knife and deftly cleaved off a thin piece to give it a tryAfter the crowd sung Happy Birthday in Spanish the defending champion told the packed Manolo Santana Stadium It truly is incredible to celebrate my birthday with all of you Each year I celebrate my birthday here When I turned 18 I played Rafael Nadal in a loss when I turned 19 I played Cameron Norrie in a win and now at 20 I advance to the finalAlso ReadBopannaEbden roar into Madrid Open finalThe secondranked Alcaraz will face 65thranked JanLennard Struff in Sundays final after the German fought back from a set down to beat Aslan KaratsevAlcaraz is aiming for his fourth title of the season after triumphs in Buenos Aires Indian Wells and Barcelona He is also preparing for the French Open this monthIf Alcaraz successfully defends his title in Madrid he will recover his world No 1 ranking by playing one match in Rome next weekIn his first matchup with Alcaraz Coric surprised early with his ability to counter his drop shots so Alcaraz changed tactics and just battered the Croat into submission He took a 32 break lead and didnt look backAlcaraz has dropped only one set the first in his opener against Emil Ruusuvuori at the tournament he won for the first time last year en route to becoming the US Open and the youngest yearend No 1 in ATP historyAfter that comeback win over Ruusuvouri Alcaraz made quick work of Grigor Dimitrov Alexander Zverev and Karen Khachanov to reach the semifinalsIt means a lot to me playing a final again here in Madrid Alcaraz said iquestIts such a special place for me and I have great memories since I came here to play when I was under 12 Of course last year was amazing Turning 20 like that is special so I will enjoy the final here and I will try to make all of Spain happyAlcaraz has won his last 20 matches in SpainWomens No 1 Iga Swiatek and No 2 Aryna Sabalenka will meet for the title on SaturdayTen days ago Struff lost to Karatsev in qualifying but he joined the draw as a lucky loser and made the most of it reach his first career finalHis 46 63 64 victory over Karatsev also meant Struff was the first lucky loser to reach an Masters 1000 finalStruff struck 15 aces and will hope his big serve helps him dethrone Alcaraz Struff already upset fourthseeded Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarterfinalsThe final will be his ninth match at the tournament compared to six for the topseeded AlcarazStruff beat Alcaraz on clay at the French Open in 2021 while Alcaraz needed five sets to down Struff at Wimbledon last yearThis is going to be different Struff said This is in Spain in Madrid He is 200 on Spanish clay courts so it is going to be very tough I have to go for it otherwise I will have no chance I will try my best to beat him and win my first titleThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever