The staggering numbers behind Carlos Alcaraz’s ‘spellbinding’ Japan Open performance

Ewan West
Carlos Alcaraz at the Japan Open
Carlos Alcaraz hits a forehand

Watching Carlos Alcaraz in full flight is a sight to behold for tennis fans, and the Spaniard treated the Japan Open crowd to that experience with his quarter-final display.

Alcaraz was at his devastating best as he saw off world No 33 Brandon Nakashima 6-2, 6-4 to progress to the semi-finals at the ATP 500 tournament in Tokyo.

The world No 1 is making his debut in Japan, and there was concern over his fitness after he hurt his ankle during his opening round win over Sebastian Baez. He recovered, though, to down Zizou Bergs in the second round, and his latest performance suggests he has put the issue behind him.

Alcaraz was dominant on serve against Nakashima as he landed 67% of his first serves and lost just eight service points in total (winning 83% on first serve and 80% on second serve).

Nakashima, who possesses an impressive serve, landed 72% of his first serves, but he was still broken three times and faced seven break points in total.

Alcaraz won 64 of the 109 total points played and won 39 of these points with clean winners — an astonishing tally in a two-set match. Just one of these winners was an ace, with Alcaraz blasting 25 forehand winners and 12 backhand winners.

Despite his aggression, the six-time Grand Slam champion committed only 18 unforced errors. He won 34 of the 53 points played at the baseline and 11 of the 14 points in which he came to the net.

The ATP Tour’s Tennis Insights data analytics model gave Alcaraz’s forehand and backhand staggering ratings of 9.7 and 9.5 out of 10 respectively.

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After Nakashima saved three match points while serving at 3-5 in the second set, Alcaraz closed out the contest in staggering fashion on his own serve.

Serving at 5-4, Alcaraz struck four sublime winners in a row to hold at love: a jaw-dropping backhand flick on the stretch, a blistering forehand cross-court, a delicate backhand drop volley and a massive forehand inside-in winner.

On the level he produced in the final game, Alcaraz said: “I always say that closing the match is always difficult, I think even tougher when you face match ball when I was returning, so losing that game, I thought that it was going to be really difficult.

“But I just tried to maintain my focus, I tried to play some great points and tennis in the last game and I haven’t played such a last game like this, so I’m really happy about it.”

Former British No 1 Barry Cowan, who commentated on the match for Tennis TV, was in awe of Alcaraz’s display.

“Alcaraz put on a real show tonight, brilliant,” said Cowan.

“That was worthy of the world No 1, that performance tonight. 39 winners and only one ace, I’m not sure, actually, whether I’ve seen those numbers before in a two-set match.

“I mean, the forehands were outrageous, the pace. Also the variety as well, you think of some of the beautiful, skilful shots at the net, a couple of the good returns. Only 18 unforced errors.

“Utterly dominant on serve, just dropped five points on first serve, three points on second serve.

“Overall, that felt like a real privilege to watch that from Alcaraz tonight. 80 minutes of spellbinding tennis.”

Alcaraz will take on world No 12 Casper Ruud in the last four in Tokyo.

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