Spanish teenager caps magical week

MADRID. - Spanish teenager Carlos Alcaraz completed a magical week with victory over defending champion Alexander Zverev in the Madrid Open final.

The 19-year-old, who had beaten Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in his previous two matches, swept aside the German second seed 6-3 6-1.

It is Alcaraz’s second Masters 1000 crown after Miami last month and his fourth title of the year.

He is set to rise to sixth in the world before the French Open later in May.

“This tournament is special for me because it’s a tournament I came and watched when I was seven or eight,” he said.

Alcaraz was in determined form from the start against Zverev, whose semi-final against Greek fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas did not finish until after 01:00 local time on Sunday (00:00 BST).

He outplayed and outfought the German, who was chasing a third title in the Spanish capital, right from the start.

Zverev seemed totally out of sorts and unable to deal with the rising star of the sport.

Alcaraz broke to make it 4-2 in the opening set and was in full control after that, thrilling the home crowd with the variety of his shots and keeping his opponent on the run.

The teenager broke his opponent three times in the second set to wrap up victory in just one hour and four minutes.

Zverev blamed the scheduling for his lacklustre performance.

“The scheduling needs to be done better ... Yesterday I started my match at 11:00pm.

“I played three sets. Finished at 1:30,” the world number three said.

“Until I get back to the hotel, until I eat, until I do my work with the physio because I have to prepare my body for the next day, it’s 5:00am.

“If you stay up until 4:00-5:00am, the next day you are tired. If you do it two nights in a row, you are completely dead.

“You are destroyed, you will not be able to do physical activity on a maximum level.”

The German also said Alcaraz is now the “best player in the world” but the Spaniard played down that praise.

“Djokovic is number one in the rankings.

“(Even though) I have won Barcelona, and I have beaten Djokovic and Rafa in Madrid, I don’t consider myself the best player in the world,” he said.

“I also think that tomorrow I’m going to be (ranked) sixth, so I still have five players in front of me to be the best one.”

Alcaraz also said he would be skipping the Rome Masters to recover from the ankle injury he suffered in the Madrid quarter-finals and be ready for the French Open, which starts on 22 May.