Intractable on serve, decisive with his forehand and quicker and more agile than ever to counter Carlos Alcaraz's dropshots, Felix Auger-Aliassime depressed the world number 1 in the Basel semi-finals. Faces were seen two of the favorites to win everything in the coming years. But on this occasion Alcaraz knelt before an opponent in an exceptional way. The Canadian has twelve consecutive wins and stands in his third final. No one has won more indoors than him this year.
The Murcian could never enter the match against an Aliassime tactically much more prepared than on other occasions. Toni Nadal's pupil went one step further in his search for titles, while Alcaraz will surely leave with the feeling of not having been able to compete against an apparently superior rival.
Alcaraz's career in Basel once again invited optimism. The victory against Carreño made him have the level of confidence that he needed. However, against Aliassime the story was very different from the beginning. The Spaniard did not find the rest, he would only win five points in the entire first set, and the discomfort was also appearing with his service.
The consistency shown on other days did not occur on this occasion and Alcaraz's disconnections were appearing at times. The most serious, from the eighth game, involved the loss of the first set. The Canadian won eight points in a row and closed the first round with a forceful message.
The second sleeve would not start better. In the third game another mental disconnection of the Murcian returned, unable to find solutions to the leg speed of his rival. His dropshots weren't working and his unforced errors multiplied. The Canadian broke the break and all Alcaraz's alarms went off.
From that moment he improved the rest, he managed to have options with several 30 equals. But the Canadian never left the door open for concessions. On the contrary, he achieved a second break in the seventh game that already meant the settlement of Alcaraz in the tournament. The Murcian would achieve the first break balls of the match in the last game, but he was not able to take advantage of them either.
Roberto Bautista, meanwhile, could not with the push of the young Dane Holger Rune, only 19 years old, a player of enormous inspiration who is taking giant steps in his progression (7-6 and 7-6). The game was very close from start to finish but the player from Castellón succumbed in two very different tie-breaks. In the first, the Danish clearly dominated the Spanish.
Bautista reacted with a more aggressive tennis in the second round and had several break points in the fifth and seventh games. He did not materialize them and again the tiebreaker was reached, in which the Spaniard started better and had three set points (6-3). But even there, Rune knew how to react, and with five consecutive points he earned the right to play in the final against Auger-Aliassime.
