KEEPING his ATP Finals dream alive, world number three Carlos Alcaraz overcame Russian Andrey Rublev in a tight two-setter at the Inalpi Arena in Turin. Alcaraz won 6-3 7-6, successfully bouncing back from a shock loss to Casper Ruud on day two, and must defeat world number three Alexander Zverev for a shot at reaching the knockout semi-finals stage.

Alcaraz struggled with a stomach issue against Rudd in that surprise defeat, as well as some nasal problems which saw the Spaniard having taped up his nose for the second match. However putting all that aside, he was able to shake off a determined Rublev to secure the victory in 96 minutes.

“I surprised myself,” Alcaraz said post-match. “The way that I played today from the baseline, with my serve. I was really calm. I just tried to be focused on my game and what I had to do and forget about that I’m not feeling well and that I’m sick.

“Once you step on the court, you have to forget everything, your struggles outside the court, and you try to put your focus on hitting a good forehand, a good backhand, and making good tactics against the opponent. I thought I did that pretty well, and surprised myself.”

Alcaraz served 10 aces to seven, and won a whopping 84 and 63 per cent of his first and second serve points. Rublev was certainly still impressive, converting 75 and 52 per cent of his own serve points, but could not create a break point against the third seed and then falling short in a nail-biting second set tiebreaker, 10-8.

The Spaniard hit 31 winners to Rublev’s 14 and he looked back to his scintillating best ahead of his must-win clash against German Zverev in the final group stage match on Friday.

“I feel like in the last matches I couldn’t hit good drop shots, and I was thinking, ‘What’s going on?’,” Alcaraz said. “My style, my game, it’s about playing these kinds of shots and enjoying the game. So I tried to do it today. I felt pretty good from the baseline too, running.

“I had many options on my mind. If I move well, run well from the baseline, I have more options. I’m really happy that ‘Option A’ of just running and playing good points from the baseline, I made it happen.”

Alcaraz must defeat Zverev in the final John Newcombe Group match, while either hoping Rublev can take out Ruud, or win comfortably enough to have a higher games win-loss record than one of Zverev or Ruud if the Norwegian does win. Incredibly despite two losses, Rublev can still make it if Zverev beat Alcaraz and the Russian easily defeats Ruud on Friday.

In the other day four match, second seed Zverev knocked off sixth seed Ruud in an equally tight two-setter. The German won 7-6 6-3, closing out the opening set tiebreaker 7-3 and taking a time of one hour and 26 minutes to secure the victory.

Hitting 28 winners to 13, Zverev said he was pleased to get the win and is in the box seat to qualify for the semi-finals. However he must still beat Alcaraz to guarantee his spot, or rely on other results. The German is chasing his third ATP crown after titles in 2018 and 2021.

“A good match. I thought both of us played quite good tennis,” Zverev said post-match. “I’m happy with the win. Maybe it was even better than my first match, even though the first match was quite good as well. I’m looking forward to Carlos now on Friday and hopefully more matches at the weekend.”