Stefanos Tsitsipas was 'desperate' when he hit the ball at Carlos Alcaraz in Barcelona, says Alex Corretja

Alex Corretja believes Stefanos Tsitsipas was “desperate” when he appeared to hit the ball at Carlos Alcaraz during their quarter-final clash at the Barcelona Open. Tsitsipas was down 5-4 and 40-0 when he ran to pick up a volley on his forehand side. Ad/> With Alcaraz at the net, Tsitsipas fired the ball back straight down the middle of the court, forcing his opponent to duck out of the way.

Roland-Garros'Stay away from that' — Corretja warns Alcaraz about Nadal comparisons15 HOURS AGO Alcaraz stared down Tsitsipas as he went to his chair while the Barcelona crowd made their feelings clear as they whistled and booed the world No. 5. “I was very surprised to see Alcaraz dictating so much against Tsitsipas,” two-time French Open finalist Corretja told Eurosport.

“Someone who just won Monte Carlo and is usually very aggressive, but he struggled so much on the backhand side and from Stefanos’ point of view you can see he was desperate, that’s why on that ball he ran and he was just trying to hit as hard as he could to probably just to tell the guy ‘OK, leave me alone, you’re pushing me so much’. Corretja plays down Alcaraz-Nadal comparisons Alcaraz breaks into top 10 after Barcelona win “And it was, I think, sort of like a desperate reaction from Stefanos. And I also liked a lot the way Alcaraz behaved at that moment because he looked at him like ‘OK, no fear, I’m not scared of you, I’m beating you and that’s what I’m doing with my tactics’.

“He mixed it up very well. He showed a lot of personality and at the same time he was brave and ready to fight.” Alcaraz came through the match to improve his head-to-head record against Tsitsipas to 3-0. He also won the tournament to secure his third title of an impressive season.