Carlos Alcaraz does not complete the comeback against Norrie and falls in Cincinnati

In the best match of the tournament, even, full of long exchanges and electrifying points, Carlos Alcaraz succumbed to the exquisite left foot of Cameron Norrie (7-6(4), 6-7(4) and 6-4) after not completing a comeback that, with hints of epic, ended up dying on the shore. The Murcian tennis player, who had beaten Norrie on the three occasions they had met so far, won the second set in the tiebreaker after turning around a situation that seemed irreversible. Later, in the third, with Norrie still digesting the blow, Alcaraz caught a break at the first change and got 1-3 on the scoreboard, but the Briton, serene, turned the game around and sentenced the last set . 6-4. In the last game, with Norrie serving and the dynamics becoming increasingly unfavorable for Alcaraz, the unrecognizable young man from Murcia missed a volley at the net with everything in his favor to take the point. There, the disciple of Juan Carlos Ferrero, serious, took the ball, looked at it, seemed to talk to it, ask it, and immediately, full of rage, burst it into the Cincinnati sky. “The truth is that it has been a very tough game, losing this type of game hurts,” he said at a press conference after going through the shower. And he added: “You have to take the positive, I have a lot to improve for the US Open. I have to look at the things that I have done wrong in this match and try to maintain the good level for a longer time, not have so many ups and downs”. On the center court of the Lindner Family Tennis Center, far from the crowded, humid heat, incipient night, Cameron Norrie, 26 years old, certified his ticket for the semifinals, where the reborn Borna Coric is already waiting for him. Of a Scottish father and a Welsh mother, Norrie, British by genes, was born in Johannesburg (South Africa), although he moved to Auckland (New Zealand) when he was only three years old, where his parents still reside. After representing the oceanic country as a junior, Norrie settled in London at the age of 16. A staunch admirer of another left-hander, that of Fernando Verdasco, from the capital of England he traveled to Texas, where he finished his studies in Sociology and ended up focusing his passion on tennis. Now, with the victory against Alcaraz and the pass to the semifinals, the Briton, winner of Indian Wells in 2021 and semifinalist in the last edition of Wimbledon, will climb to ninth position in the ATP ranking, the best of his career. “I’m very happy. win charles [Alcaraz] it is very difficult and I feel that it has to be done now, when he is still young, because he is going to continue raising his level”, said Norrie, smiling, still on the track. And he explained: “I wanted to play a tough match, with legs and physicality. I think it’s the only point where I could be better than him today, so I tried to make each point as long as possible.” With Norrie’s victory over the youngster from El Palmar, the last match of the day, the semifinals of the Cincinnati Masters 1000, prelude to the US Open, are as follows: (1) Medvedev – (4) Tsitsipas and (9) Norrie – (RP) Coric. In the women’s draw, where there are also no Spaniards left after the early eliminations of Garbiñe Muguruza and Paula Badosa, the semifinals will be made up as follows: Keys – Kvitova and (Q) García – (6) Sabalenka. You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes on Facebook and Twitter, or sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.