Two things that stood out in Carlos Alcaraz's QF win over Casper Ruud at China Open

Top seed Carlos Alcaraz of Spain beat Casper Ruud of Norway 6-4 6-2 in the quarterfinal of the China Open in Beijing on Monday. The match was over within a couple of hours, as the 20-year-old Spaniard cruised to victory.

Alcaraz thus remained on course for his sixth title of the year and is the favourite to win the title in Beijing. He will face Jannik Sinner in the semifinal on Tuesday.

Sinner has a decent record against Alcaraz, but should find it considerably tough to go past the Spaniard in the semifinal. However, it promises to be an excitng clash between two talented youngsters of world tennis.

On that note, let us take a look at two things that stood out in the match between Alcaraz and Ruud:

#1. Alcaraz put pressure on Ruud's backhand:

Right from the beginning, Alcaraz started putting pressure on Ruud's backhand with his own crosscourt backhand. The 24-year-old Norwegian kept going around his backhand whenever he could, but Alcaraz often played his backhand with a sharp angle to prevent him from doing so.

Ruud responded with crosscourt backhand slices frequently, but Alcaraz kept pouncing on the ball to hit winners with his inside-in forehand. Ruud looked comfortable whenever he was able to engage in crosscourt forehand exchanges. But, Alcaraz started hitting down-the-line forehands from the deuce court to counter this.

Still, Ruud made a great start by breaking Alcaraz in the second game of the first set. However, the Spaniard then broke back twice to win the set and take a crucial 1-0 lead.

#2. Alcaraz hit powerful groundstrokes and return winners:

By the start of the second set, Alcaraz was firing on all cylinders and offering Ruud no respite. He kept going around his backhand frequently and targeted Ruud's backhand with his inside-out forehand instead of his crosscourt backhand.

Ruud hardly had the answers to Alcaraz's powerful groundstrokes, and the Spaniard also hit a few stupendous return winners. Alcaraz broke Ruud twice in the second set and never lost his own serve to ease towards a victory.

The Spaniard converted four of the 15 break point opportunities that came his way in the match. Ruud was able to win only 35% of points on his second serve in the match, which was way less than Alcaraz’s 67%.