TURIN, Italy — Carlos Alcaraz had his drop shot clicking and it helped him overcome physical issues to claim a 6-3, 7-6 (8) victory over Andrey Rublev at the ATP Finals on Wednesday.
The win put Alcaraz back into contention for a spot in the semifinals of the year-ending tournament for the top eight players, after he was beaten by Casper Ruud in straight sets in his opener.
Alcaraz said after the Ruud match on Monday that he hadn’t been feeling well and was “uncomfortable in the stomach.” The Spaniard then cut short a practice session on Tuesday.
“I just tried to be focused on my game, on what I have to do, and forget about that I’m not feeling well, I’m sick and all that stuff,” Alcaraz said.
Alcaraz wore a pink nose strip to help with his breathing. “It is something that I’m going to wear more often,” he said. “I could recover better between points.”
Alcaraz produced several drop-shot winners, and on the occasions when Rublev did run down the short balls, the Spaniard hit winners into the open court on his next shot.
Late in the second set, Alcaraz even produced a drop-shot approach volley winner. In the second set tiebreaker, he saved two set points.
“I felt like the last month I couldn’t hit good drops,” said Alcaraz, who dropped behind Alexander Zverev to No. 3 in the rankings this week. “And I was thinking, ‘What’s going on?’ You know, my style, my game is about playing these kind of shots … so I tried to do it today.”
In all, Alcaraz produced more than twice as many winners as Rublev, 31-14.
“I think he missed only one when he was 40-0 up,” Rublev said of Alcaraz’s drop shots. “All the rest he won.”
Later, Zverev will face Ruud in the same group.
The top two finishers in each round-robin group advance to the semifinals.
Alcaraz is now 1-1, while Rublev dropped to 0-2 after getting beaten by Zverev in his opener.
Top-ranked Jannik Sinner leads the other group ahead of Taylor Fritz, Daniil Medvedev and Alex de Minaur.
Alcaraz plays Zverev in his final group match and Rublev plays Ruud.