Teen sensation Alcaraz continues to electrify, makes Miami Open final against Ruud

No Rafa. No Roger. No Novak.

No problem.

The Miami Open has been given the best booster shot of all in the form of Carlos Alcaraz, a teen prodigy from Murcia, Spain, who seems destined for greatness.

After electrifying the crowds with his array of sizzling shot-making for the past week, the speedy Spaniard continued to dazzle on a muggy Friday night in a packed Hard Rock Stadium. The 18-year-old outlasted defending champion Hubert Hurkacz, the eighth seed, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-2) to become the second youngest finalist in the 37-year history of the tournament. His idol and countryman Rafael Nadal was the youngest in 2005.

Hurcacz’s loss dashed the potential Polish sweep, as countrywoman Iga Swiatek is in Saturday’s final. Hurkacz’s 14-0 singles streak in Florida (2021 Delray Beach Open and Miami Open) was also snapped.

The 14th-seeded Alcaraz, who’s ranked 16th and is the youngest to break into the top 20 since Andrei Medvedev in 1993, will face Norway’s Casper Ruud, the sixth seed, in Sunday’s 1 p.m. final. The muscular, 6-1 Spaniard is already the youngest player to reach the semis of Indian Wells and Miami in the same year.

“Believe the hype. It’s for real,” said former No. 1 Jim Courier on Tennis Channel, who added the teen has the “it” factor.

The fist pumps and shouts of “Vamos!” sound and look familiar, but Alcaraz’s flat, powerful attack combined with a variety of serves, a natural prowess at the net and an uncanny drop shot, doesn’t resemble Nadal’s top-spinning game, whom he took to three sets in a recent Indian Wells semifinal. However, their Hall of Fame résumés may end up being comparable as is their penchant for sportsmanship.

At 5-6, 30-0, the chair umpire ruled that Hurkacz got to Alcaraz’s drop shot on two bounces. Hurkacz and Alcaraz disagreed, so the Spaniard told the chair to replay the point. In the ensuing tiebreaker, Alcaraz found himself down 3-5, just as he did in Thursday’s epic three-set victory over Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic.

Once again, when in trouble, Alcaraz relied on his deft drop shot to go up 6-5. He wrapped up the set by driving a backhand at the feet of the onrushing Hurkacz to elicit a half-volley error.

Hurkacz, 25, hung tough due to his blistering, unreturnable 130-mph serves (13 aces), but frittered away two makeable break points in the 5-6 game. This time Alcaraz ran away with the tiebreaker, forcing several volley errors from Hurkacz, including on his first match point.

Cue the “Vamos” and standing ovation for the charismatic teen.

“I have tons of emotions right now,” said Alcaraz, who had 22 winners and 21 unforced errors, to 23 and 37, respectively, for Hurkacz. “This is what you dream of when you’re a child.”

With no service breaks by either player, Alcaraz’s key to victory was winning 70 percent of his second serves, compared to Hurkacz’s 45 percent tally.

While the afternoon men’s semifinal didn’t create the buzz like the evening matchup, it was tight for a while before Ruud pulled away from Argentine Francisco Cerundolo 6-4, 6-1 to reach his career-first Masters 1000 final.

In their only meeting a year ago, Alcaraz, playing at home in Spain, rolled to a 6-2, 6-4 quarterfinal victory over Ruud on clay in Marbella.

“I barely had any chance at all, I felt like, so I would try to seek revenge of course,’’ smiled Ruud, 23, who has won seven ATP 250 titles, six on clay. “He was just coming out firing flames at me. … Obviously, I think we all know how great of a player he already is.”

At No. 8, Ruud is the highest ranked Norwegian ever, surpassing his father Christian’s 39th in 1995.

For Cerundolo, 23, his Cinderella-like ride came to an abrupt ending as his nerves seem to get the best of him. At 4-5, two of his 28 unforced errors were sandwiched between a double fault to hand the opening set to Ruud. In the second set at 1-2, Cerundolo was broken at love, and it seemed to break his spirit as well.

“I was there, but the momentum was really difficult,” said Cerundolo, whose $343,985 payday approached his career earnings. “I was not playing well, mentally, a bit down. He was so relaxed.”

It was a career-changing tournament for Cerundolo, who entered ranked 103rd with an 0-2 mark in Tour-level hard court tournaments. His projected rank will be a career-high 37 on Monday.

▪ In the first women’s doubles semifinal on Friday, Delray Beach’s Coco Gauff and Catherine McNally, the fourth seeds, bowed to the top-seeded duo of Elise Mertens and Veronika Kudermetova, 6-4, 3-6 (10-2). That pair will meet the winner of the late semi featuring Ekaterina Alexandrova and Zhaoxuan Yang vs. Laura Siegemund and Vera Zvonareva in Sunday’s final.