The Spanish player’s chances of a match up against Jannik Sinner in the semi-final of the Shanghai Masters had to be put to rest early when he was defeated by Tomas Machac of Czech Republic.

Machac played exceptional tennis by breaking Alcaraz twice in the second set and maintaining his composure to clinch one of the biggest triumphs of his nascent career 7-6(5) 7-5.

Instead of the expected “Sincaraz” match which was supposed to take place after the exiting match of the China Open final last week which was clinched by Alcaraz, Machac has been shifted to face the top seed in the next round of the competition due to this set back.

"I was playing unbelievable but I knew that my level of tennis today would be great, because I'm playing the best right now for sure," Machac said afterwards.

They have met only once before in a recent Davis Cup round-robin clash when the teenager was unable to perform due to his injury. If but that had been pressed to an abrupt halt, there was no question that Machac had triumphed in the first set where he clinched triumph in an engaging tiebreak; that triumph had boosted his morale and thus keeping that flicker of optimism burning within him for their next encounter.

"Actually I knew that I had a chance [to win], but you never know, even with [the best players], if you have [won] a set, 5-4 serving, it's really far from winning the match," Machac said.

Alcaraz is most commonly viewed as the happy-go-lucky figure and the great athlete on the courts but this time around he was not so relaxed. He shouted at his teammates and himself yelling during the bout, but Machac remained composed and fought with the number two player in the world and answered every move he had.

Machac, who teamed up with Katerina Siniakova to win the Olympic gold in mixed doubles, is about to live his biggest day. The Czech phenomenon will face the Italian giant Jannik Sinner in the final after Sinner dispatched Daniil Medvedev in straight sets this Thursday.

In his first two games Alcaraz danced through while Machac, 23 year old, was on the back foot and unable to fend the pressure. Though serving more unforced errors, severting the pressure on Alcaraz, weakness in basics, Machac returned to deuce to play baseline rallies and assert his cheeky forehands that made the audience go gaga.

Consistent check on the opponent with good tactics and powerful hitting which lead a nail-biting decider. The first mini-breaks were par with each other but then, it went to Machac 5-2. Machac finished out the first set with a nice smash, although Alcaraz responded to that with an ace.

Carried on to play on a high standard further advanced to 2-1 on the break but the hard-fought intense sixth game threaten his pace. He saved three break points but struggled with his serve, and at 3-3 he dropped the break with a poor touch.

Alcaraz seized the momento clinching 15 and taking the match back into his favor. At 5-5 it seemed that another tie-break was surely around the corner but, Machac seized the moment to come up with a crucial break on Alcaraz. The first break point was saved when a huge second serve ace was played but Machac sealed the break with an outstanding cross court winner that placed him in a position such that he would have to serve for the entire match.

Machac finished of a fine performance of holding to zero, controlling points from the net well and then hit a winning shot on the match point. Not even speedy footed Alcaraz crowed could run to chase the ball. Following a relatively low-key victory, the 23-year-old Czech moved into his first Masters semi-final, ousting Alcaraz, who put up a great fight in China, 7-6(5), 7-5.

The new number one, a position he is one victory away from achieving in his rampage of the existing crop of tennis stars; Sinner is the next on his list after beating Novak Djokovic.

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