{"id":278150,"date":"2025-11-12T10:25:34","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T10:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/278150\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T10:25:34","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T10:25:34","slug":"carlos-alcaraz-beats-taylor-fritz-and-moves-within-1-win-of-year-end-no-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/278150\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlos Alcaraz beats Taylor Fritz and moves within 1 win of year-end No. 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

TURIN, Italy (AP) \u2014 Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> is one win away from securing the year-ending No. 1 ranking.<\/p>\n

Alcaraz rallied past Taylor Fritz 6-7 (2), 7-5, 6-3 on Tuesday at the ATP Finals<\/a> and now needs to either win his final group match against Lorenzo Musetti or his next match in the semifinals to finish a year No. 1 for the second time in his career.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m trying not to think about it, to be honest,\u201d Alcaraz said. \u201cBut it\u2019s really difficult, not to think about the No. 1 spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alcaraz, who improved to 2-0 at the season-ending event for the top eight players, sealed a spot in the semifinals later on when Musetti held off Alex de Minaur 7-5, 3-6, 7-5.<\/p>\n

If Alcaraz doesn\u2019t win another match and Jannik Sinner goes undefeated to defend his title, Sinner will finish No. 1.<\/p>\n

Alcaraz produced 47 winners to Fritz\u2019s 38 and managed to come back from a set down despite 14 aces from his American opponent.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt was (a) really, really difficult match,\u201d Alcaraz said. \u201cReally demanding physically. It was really tight. I saved really difficult and important moments during the match, which I\u2019m really proud of and really happy about it to show a really good tennis when it matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fritz had chances to break Alcaraz\u2019s serve early in the second set.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wasn\u2019t clinical enough in finishing some points on some really big points,\u201d Fritz said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first two sets I think I did an incredible job serving and returning. I gave myself all the chances I could possibly ask for the first two sets,\u201d Fritz added. \u201cMy opportunity to win that match was in the second set, and I didn\u2019t take it. I had the chances.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Alcaraz now tops the Jimmy Connors group ahead of Fritz and Musetti, who are 1-1, while De Minaur trails at 0-2.<\/p>\n

Musetti was a late replacement for Novak Djokovic, who withdrew with a shoulder injury.<\/p>\n

The top two finishers in each group advance to the semifinals.<\/p>\n

Sinner leads his group after beating Felix Auger-Aliassime in his opener on Monday.<\/p>\n

Fritz’s knee<\/p>\n

Fritz was bothered by knee tendinitis in the third set.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gets a little bit tough to bend my knee on my serve once we get that late into the match,\u201d Fritz said. \u201cMy knee is completely cooked.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve had tendinitis all year long,\u201d Fritz added. \u201cI\u2019ve really struggled to play back-to-back days without it flaring up. \u2026 I started feeling it towards the end of the first set, but it didn\u2019t really affect me until the third set. It just got to the point where I was really struggling to bend my back leg on my serve, step into backhands, load the leg, my right leg, for an open-stance forehand.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tennis<\/a><\/p>\n

The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TURIN, Italy (AP) \u2014 Carlos Alcaraz is one win away from securing the year-ending No. 1 ranking. Alcaraz…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,619,26465,82,15226,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-278150","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-carlos-alcaraz","11":"tag-lorenzo-musetti","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-taylor-fritz","14":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}