After joining Spain in the group stage of the Davis Cup, Carlos Alcaraz was present in Kazakhstan to attend Astana Open. This is the ATP 500 tournament on the hard yard in the indoor yard. The tournament has the presence of many top players such as Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev or Stefanos Tsitsipas.
As the No. 1 seed, in high form, Alcaraz is considered as one of the top candidates for the championship. Even so, the Spanish tennis player has just caused great disappointment when losing on the day of the army. His opponent is David Goffin – 66 ATP.
Entering Set 1, Alcaraz is a better entry. Even in Game 1, he had 3 chances to win the break point and make Goffin “sweat”. Shortly thereafter, he easily broke the opponent's gaming game in Game 3.
It seemed that Alcaraz would take advantage of, but Goffin unexpectedly increased. Accordingly, the Belgian player reclaims the break right in game 4 to balance the score 2-2. Next, the two players also had one more break exchange in games 6 and 9 and drew 5-5 in game 10.
In the decisive stage of the set, Goffin competes for VPP and bravery. After successfully defending the 11-hinge game, the Belgian player breaks Alcaraz's break in game 12. The 7-5 victory in favor of the goffin is also the result of this set.
Leading 1 set, Goffin creates a good psychological momentum in Set 2. He started the very good set of set when winning the break right in Game 2 and quickly takes 3-0 leading. At this time, Alcaraz was mentally down. In game 6 when holding the serve, he lost to white and lost the break once more.
Even in Game 7, Alcaraz reclaimed a break. However, it was not enough for the world's No. 1 player to turn the flag. He accepted the racket in Game 9 with defeat 3-6.
In the end, Alcaraz lost to Goffin with a score of 5-7, 3-6 and was eliminated in the first round of Astana Open. Notably, this is also the first time the Spaniard has lost after 2 sets from Paris Masters 2021.
