That momentum, and the fact that he had nothing to lose against Alcaraz, helped Ruusuvuori run away with the first set 6-2. It didn’t hurt that Alcaraz was clearly nervous and pressing. He went for too much too soon, he hit off his back foot, he sent his ground strokes long and wide and into the net, he misfired with his drop shot. In the second set, Alcaraz looked to his coaching team for help, “Vamos”ed even more often than normal, and tried to bring the crowd into it. Yet nothing could make the calm and collected Ruusuvuori go away.
Serving at 2-3, Alcaraz found himself staring at five break points. One more mistake and he could be quickly down 6-2, 5-2. But he didn’t make that mistake. Instead, the old Alcaraz, the good Alcaraz, the depending champ Alcaraz, finally appeared. He saved one break point with a shoe-top drop volley; another with a backhand winner; another forehand winner; and another with a volley winner. When Alcaraz’s game had to be there, it was.
On the other side of the net, Ruusuvuori had pushed as far as he could, for as long as he could. When he missed a backhand at break point in the following game, the stress went out of the building, and out of Alcaraz. At 5-4, he held at love for the second set; he broke in the first game of the third; from there he ran out a 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 win. He had lived to play another day at home, and the celebration of the new hero was finally on.