Carlos Alcaraz dominated the Kazakh Shevchenko and will face the Brazilian Wild in the third round on Sunday.
Carlos Alcaraz continues his love affair with Madrid, the city where he last lost on May 5, 2021, after falling to his idol Rafael Nadal in the second round of the tournament. It was the day he came of age.
In his debut at the Madrid tournament, after the uncertainty caused by the injury to the pronator teres in his right arm, Carlitos took a step forward to chain together 12 victories on the clay of the Caja Mágica.
In fact, he had already made a statement in the previous Thursday’s practice by defeating Daniil Medvedev. Wearing a compression sleeve that makes him feel more secure, Alcaraz hit and hit until he overcame the resistance of the Kazakh Alexander Shevchenko, winning 6-2, 6-1, in 68 minutes.
According to Marca, no one has managed to win the prestigious tournament three times in a row with the presence of the best players. He has already laid the first stone. Next up is Thiago Seyboth Wild, ranked 63rd. There are no precedents between the two.
The 29 days that had passed since his last official match in the Miami Open quarterfinals barely showed. In the capital of Spain, Carlitos feels at home. Unlike Rafael Nadal, who always suffers from altitude sickness and struggles to adjust his shots, the two-time Grand Slam champion doesn’t need adaptation because he trains at altitude at the Ferrero Tennis Academy in Villena.
Juanjo López, Alcaraz’s doctor, joined the team. The deadlines had been met to avoid taking risks with his arm in the middle of the European clay tour.
The first point of the match is a summary of what Carlitos is: baseline consistency and net play. Without needing to hit too hard with his forehand, he managed to drive his opponent off the court.
After the first two games, Shevchenko had only seen the ball pass by. That’s why he had only two points won on his scorecard. Each shot from his executioner cleaned the white line. Swiss precision. The player from El Palmar had a point for 3-0 in his favor. It slipped away. The Kazakh had avoided a shutout.
Alcaraz accelerated again in the fifth game to achieve the second break. Each time he shifted up a gear, his opponent couldn’t keep up with the pace of the ball. With a point of relaxation, resulting from the comfortable 4-1, the reigning champion lost his serve with two drop shots that didn’t clear the net.
Madrid, a tournament noted for its modernity, has Hawk-Eye technology. This allows for the correction of blatant errors that occurred at the TMS in Monte Carlo and that influenced the outcomes of matches.
The second favorite in the draw, after winning the first set, was looking for the shutout that Nadal achieved on Thursday with Darwin Blanch. He flirted with it because he advanced 3-0. When serving for 4-0, he again lost his service with another drop shot that missed by millimeters.
