Carlos Alcaraz started his career on the right foot at the Barcelona Open on Tuesday, easily defeating Portugal’s Nuno Borges 6-3 6-1.
The 19-year-old Spaniard will attempt to successfully defend his first career title on the ATP Tour this week. And Alcaraz made sure to send a strong message to their next opponents, as they flaunted all their might against Borges, 79H player in the world. The world No. 2 was also effective with service returns in the 63-minute duel, converting five of his seven break points to improve his record to 19-2 so far this season.
“It is always special to play here; it is not a tournament like any other for me. I am at home and I have the spectators who support me. It is always good and special.”
Alcaraz, a championship favourite, has already won in Buenos Aires and Indian Wells earlier this year. In the third round, he will face compatriot Roberto Bautista Agut, who took over Bernabé Zapata Mirales 6-2, 6-2 at the end of the day over Rafael Nadal.
Earlier on Tuesday, it wasn’t easy, but Casper Rudd earned his bye to the last eight by defeating American Ben Shelton 6-2, 7-6(1). The Norwegian ended the second-round duel after 70 minutes, though the American erased a 3-5 deficit in the second set to force a tiebreaker. This victory achieved by the third player in the world on the Catalan clay courts allowed him to equal his record at 1-1 against the team Tennis player Left-handed, 20 years old.
“He played well, just like me,” Ruud said after the duel. I played a flawless first set, made some costly mistakes…but the second set was much more difficult. The exchanges were much higher. »
“It can get tough. In the first set you get a bunch of points on a silver platter and then all of a sudden he starts to get quite tight defensively. It’s hard to deal with someone who turns like that in the middle of the match, but I’m glad I kept my cool and that I I got a very good break.
Rudd quickly took control of the match with his excellent first serve and powerful forehand, as Shilton battled relentlessly. The 24-year-old then used his experience – he’s been runner-up in nine clay-court tournaments so far in his career – to stem the rise of 37H World racket in the second group. In doing so Rudd erased four of his five break points for his opponent, who was playing only the fifth game of his career on that surface.
In the quarter-finals, Rudd will face the winner of the Ben-15 duelH Worker Francisco Sirondolo and Italian Francesco Passaro. The Norwegian, who also stepped up to this stage of competition in Barcelona last year, will hope to build on his momentum after winning the title in Estoril earlier this month.
In addition, Diego Schwartzman easily measured Wu Yiping’s Chinese 6-2, 6-2. The Argentine will now face fourth seed Italian Yannick Sinner.
Among the other players who were victorious on Tuesday are the 10H seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Belgian David Goffin, Argentine Pedro Cachin, Colombian Emilio Gomez, Italian Matteo Arnaldi, Russian Alexander Shevchenko and Australian Jason Kubler.
For his part, American Frances Tiafoe (nOh 5) Lost 6-4 6-7(3) 6-4 by Finland’s Emil Russovori late in the program.
As for the Ontarian Denis Shapovalov, he is scheduled to start his career in Barcelona on Wednesday against Slovak Josef Kovalik.
.jpg)
