Madrid Open: Alcaraz set to return to No. 1 after retaining Madrid title

Carlos Alcaraz is paving his way back to the top of the world rankings after a secondstraight Madrid Open titleAlcaraz beat lucky loser JanLennard Struff 64 36 63 in the Spanish capital on Sunday to guarantee his return to the No 1 spot by playing at least one match at the upcoming Italian Open in RomeThe 20yearold Spaniard converted on his first match point after a hardfought battle against Struff to secure his fourth title of the year and 10th of his impressive young career He had also successfully defended his title in Barcelona two weeks agoAlso ReadMadrid Open Carlos Alcaraz rallies past Emil Ruusuvuori to reach third roundTo defend the title here in Madrid on the verge of regaining the No 1 ranking these are very big achievements for me Alcaraz saidI feel very proud of the work that Ive put in and of what Ive been achieving Im an ambitious guy and Im going for more in RomeIt was Alcarazs 29th win of the season and 21st straight in Spain going back to a loss to Rafael Nadal in Madrid on his 18th birthday two years agoHe joined Nadal as the only consecutive Madrid champion in tournament history and is the youngest player to successfully defend a Masters 1000 title since Nadal at Monte Carlo and Rome in 200506For me it is so so special Alcaraz saidTo lift the trophy here in Madrid In my country In front of my home crowd my family my friends Everyone close to me For me it is a special feeling that I will never forgetAlcarazs other titles this year came in Buenos Aires and Indian Wells He is the first player to win two Masters 1000 trophies this season It was the fourth Masters 1000 title overall for last years US Open championIt was a really tough match Alcaraz saidJan was playing great really aggressive In the second set I had a lot of chances to break his serve and I didnt take it and it was tough for me to lose it I told myself that I had to be positive all the time and that I would have my chances and I think I did it in the third setThe bigserving Struff was the first lucky loser to reach an ATP Masters 1000 final having earned an unexpected spot in the main draw after another player had to drop outThe 33yearold German ranked 65th in the world was playing in his second tourlevel final and trying to become just the fourth player and first in more than 20 years to win his first tourlevel trophy at a Masters 1000He called it a bestcareer achievement so farOf course I wanted to go all the way to win today but I would definitely say if someone told me two weeks ago Youre gonna play the finals I would take it definitely he saidI was in the game Had my chances But he was too good at the end and congrats to himStruff had lost in the final round of qualifying to Aslan Karatsev the player he eventually beat in the semifinals after upsetting fourthseeded Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarterfinals The final was his ninth match at the claycourt tournament in Madrid 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 yearWOMENS DOUBLESVictoria Azarenka and Beatriz Haddad Maia won the womens doubles title by defeating topseeded Americans Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula 61 64The unseeded winning duo upset two of the topthree seeds in MadridThis 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