Carlos Alcaraz had to fight hard to beat Arthur Fils to reach his first Monte Carlo Masters semi-final.
Alcaraz matched a Jannik Sinner record after beating Fils in three sets, in what is still only the Spaniard’s second appearance at the Monte Carlo Masters.
Prior to this year, Alcaraz hadn’t won a match in Monte Carlo, but is now just two away from lifting the coveted trophy.
However, the four-time Grand Slam champion admittedly had to rely on some errors from his opponent to get himself into that position.
Carlos Alcaraz pinpoints the mistake that Arthur Fils made in Monte Carlo semi-final
After dropping the first set, Alcaraz knew that he would have to go the distance if he was to reach his first Monte Carlo Masters semi-final.
That looked to be in doubt in the latter stages of the second set, with Alcaraz 0-40 down on his own serve at 5-5, as Fils had three chances to give himself an opportunity to serve for the match.
Despite hitting three second serves from this vulnerable position, Alcaraz was able to hold and then went onto beat Fils, 4-6 7-5 6-3.
Alcaraz was full of praise for Fils after their match, but admitted that the Frenchman did make some mistakes to allow him back into the contest.
“It was really, really tough,” Alcaraz said in his post-match press conference. “I’m not going to say it was one point to lose, but I was kind of dead you know in the second set.
“I think his level is pretty high, you know the strength that he hit the ball is amazing. Physically, he is one of physical player on the tour, one of the best ones for sure. Today, I mean I didn’t play my best tennis, but I think I played great tennis, it was about details today.
“In some moments he made some mistakes in the first or second shot of the point, so I tried to make the most of that free points, tried to stay there all of the time which I think I did it great and yeah one of the most difficult matches I have played this year.”
Carlos Alcaraz explains how his coach was helping him against Arthur Fils
This week at the Monte Carlo Masters, Samuel Lopez is the main coach of Alcaraz, who is without Juan Carlos Ferrero.
During the match against Fils, Alcaraz was spotted going over to Lopez on multiple occasions and asking for some feedback.
Alcaraz has since explained that this helps him see a different perspective on the match and enables him to deal with anger in difficult moments.
“Yeah, I’m someone who needs to talk with someone that I trust you know when I have difficult situations, difficult moments,” explained Alcaraz. “The anger that I have inside I have to put it out in some way and I think it’s not the best way to do it when I’m not talking to Samuel.
“I think seeing the match from the outside it’s always a better view that he can give me some advices, what I have to do or what I have to show to the opponent.
“So, yeah I need that talk to him, to my team, just to put it out all the angry that I have and obviously sometimes I need to you know advising, because sometimes I don’t know how to or what I have to do on the match. So, that view from the outside helped me a lot show good tennis and probably have less nerves, so I think having that talks with Samuel you know helped me a lot.”
Alcaraz will now look to reach his first ATP Masters 1000 final of the season, when he plays good friend and compatriot Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who has beaten Jack Draper and Ben Shelton already this week.
Receive exclusive tennis news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
