Just In: Carlos Alcaraz left confused after bizarre collapse in Japan Open semi-final continued trend
Carlos Alcaraz could not find an explanation for his opening set struggles at the 2026 Japan Open after he overcame a mini-collapse during his semi-final win.
World No 3 Alcaraz defeated 49th-ranked Jaume Munar 5-7, 6-3, 6-1 to advance to the title match at the ATP 500 tournament in Tokyo.
After he broke Munar’s serve in the seventh game, Alcaraz held to take a 5-3 lead, but he lost the next four games as his Spanish compatriot stole the set.
Alcaraz was broken at love when serving at 5-4 and 5-6, and he lost 16 consecutive points in a run that ended in the opening game of the second set, when he broke Munar.
The seven-time Grand Slam champion went on to wrap up a convincing straight-set victory to extend his win streak at the Japan Open to nine matches.
In each of his wins against Alex Michelsen, Matteo Arnaldi and Denis Shapovalov in Tokyo this year, Alcaraz saved set points before winning the first set on a tiebreak.
Following his victory against Munar, Alcaraz expressed his confusion at his struggles in the opening sets of his matches during the tournament.
“Well, I don’t know what happens in the first set… the first sets in general, to be honest,” said the 23-year-old
“I don’t know, I started the match well — break, serving for the set. I don’t know what happened. It seems like I’m struggling every first set.
“But the way that I come back every time, I’m really, really happy about it. Today, I started the match really well against Jaume — that is a really tough player to play against. And these conditions, I think, suits really well to him.
“I just tried to stay there as much as I can until that 5-4… after that, as I said, I don’t know what happened.
“But just happy that in the second set, I tried to stay there, tried to play a few good games in the beginning. I make a couple of breaks, that helped me a lot to get a bit of confidence, and I tried to play more aggressive.
“I didn’t let him go into his style, I didn’t let him to, let’s say, drive the match in his areas. So I tried to push him in every shot, in every ball, in every point. And it was the key, I think, for the match today.”
