Hugh Clarke with his usual excellent breakdown of the Charlie - Oikos Barcelona final. This excerpt from the piece sums things up quite well:
It also highlights how simple Alcaraz can keep his tactics when playing Tsitsipas, especially on clay. Whenever Alcaraz needs some breathing room, he can often reset the point in his favor by hitting high and heavy into the Tsitsipas backhand, knowing there is little threat of attack down-the-line with the extra bounce getting the ball high above the Greek’s strike zone. The backhand wing has continually let down Tsitsipas in many big matches (clay or otherwise). The top players expose it nearly every time.¹ In that first service game, Alcaraz served all four times to the Tsitsipas backhand, often with heavy kick. This earned him two free points via missed returns. On the other two points, Alcaraz was able to find a forehand after the serve and take control of the point, using 2-1 patterns with his forehand into Tsitsipas’ backhand.
https://open.substack.com/pub/hughcl...m_medium=email