Carlos Alcaraz withstands Jan-Lennard Struff fightback to secure back-to-back titles at Madrid Open

Carlos Alcaraz provided further evidence of his Roland Garros title credentials as he retained the Madrid Open title with a gritty win over Lucky Loser Jan-Lennard Struff. The World No.

2 was far from his best and had to come through some tricky moments in front of a passionate home crowd to secure his 10th Tour level title – and his fourth of 2023 – with a 6-4 3-6 6-3 success in two hours and 26 minutes. Ad The result sees the 20-year-old join Rafael Nadal as one of only two players to triumph back-to-back in Madrid, while he also becomes the youngest player since the 22-Grand Slam champion to defend an ATP Masters 1000 title.

ATP Madrid'Air of anticipation' — Spain counts down to Alcaraz and Swiatek Madrid Open finals05/05/2023 AT 19:24 Indeed, the growing talk of Alcaraz now being a red-hot favourite to go on and claim a maiden French Open crown is highly conceivable given Nadal’s continued injury travails and the fact the Murcia-born starlet is now 19-1 on clay and 29-2 overall for the year so far. The Manolo Santana Stadium was once again packed out with Spaniards eager to see Alcaraz lift another trophy on home turf and expectation was soaring given that the top seed was facing a player who initially failed to even make it through qualifying.

The 33-year-old Struff was edged out by Aslan Karatsev for a spot in the main draw but was handed a reprieve as a Lucky Loser and has not looked back. The German upset Stefanos Tsitsipas in the last eight and then avenged that qualifying defeat by beating Karatsev in an unlikely semi-final showdown.

Murray wins first title since 2019 in return to form ahead of French Open Exclusive: Borg backs Alcaraz to be No. 1 for 'many years', hopes for Nadal French Open comeback He was