Sebastián Báez stays nailed. He can’t move. Two sets have passed and a little more. Two hours and half. But they are not just any two and a half hours, but two and a half hours of punching, running, defense, attack; an outrageous premiere for both, which Carlos Alcaraz takes because he puts up with his physique more and because he has also put more head.
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This is New York and this is Carlos Alcaraz, a perfect duo because even if it’s in the morning, the Spaniard guarantees a show in an always complicated Grand Slam premiere. Sebastián Báez is added, rocky the Argentine in the proposal to encourage the staff. Two and a half hours to start the day and the world four tournament. A victory of endure and endure, hit and hit, of adding integers for what arrives. Given the fear of the first game, confidence and fireworks, of course.
New York was looking forward to seeing the boy wonder in action. Here he dazzled the staff last year after beating Stefanos Tsitsipas in a popcorn match and five sets when he was 55 in the world, and he returned yesterday as a candidate and with a pedigree: four titles, 77 wins, 27 losses, the third best of the year after Rafael Nadal and Tsitsipas. With number 1 option.
This is how he enters the track, shoulders up, his chest swollen with strength, fitness and enthusiasm, his confidence grown because the fast track marries marvelously with his style, his game and his pranks. Báez endures him, puncher, fighter, tireless at timesand who joins the party with a good handful of points that demand the maximum from the Spaniard and celebrates the stands with joy, despite the heat.
But the pupil of Juan Carlos Ferrero is strong, who can be heard from the band telling him to continue one more, one more, one more. The rival, who will be 37 in the world and measures 1’75, forces him, but he shows character and is responsive. That he then he will pay too dearly.
The reverse flies to the Murcian, always one meter inside the track; the legs run to reach what the Argentine builds with the right, and executes with precision. There is much more in everything that the Spaniard presents, fast and with rhythm, than what the rival offers, but he does not shrink. Risk towards the net the 4 of the world to show power. Twice he has a 0-30 to catch the first chapter to the rest. Those games in which the Spaniard already has superiority: he achieves it in the twelfth game, avoiding the tie break. Clenched fist, he has known how to suffer, he has known how to win.
The Spaniard is encouraged, he begins to have fun because the Argentine is already going with everything he has and something else that he invents and Alcaraz enters the game of tricks. It is the game that the public expects to see: drops, counterdrops, backward runs, shots without looking and under the legs. Hold on as long as Báez can, but the one who leads the baton is the Murcian, arms raised towards the public to celebrate that he is already here with all weapons ready.
Spanish is no longer that of last year. There you can see the progress, again in that twelfth game where it is debated again who is good, Báez, and who is better, Alcaraz. Find this the perfect forehand for a winning passing shot. The one who gives the second set. The one that ends the battle because Báez no longer has any strength left. Alcaraz was a candidate before the tournament began, although he lowered expectations because he began to feel vertigo at heights; those defeats too early, those finals without finishing. Alone, he said, he wanted to enjoy himself. And he builds a first party of rights and network, of commitment, watermarks, power and patience, which sometimes escapes him.
Not here, not yesterday, stronger than the heat, stronger than Báez, who is stuck with a 0-2 in the third heat and the party is somewhat watered down. “I knew it was going to be a great game, very tough. In a Grand Slam you can have such a complicated rival, you have to give the level from the beginning, ”the Murcian later analyzed. He has given the level and a recital, to Carlitos.
Relief win for Muguruza
Garbiñe Muguruza also won. Joy, a lot, although contained. She is a first round in the US Open, against the Danish Clara Tauson (6-3 and 7-6 (5)), and shows and demonstrates that tennis has never been a problem. She was forceful on her serve (10 aces) and she maintained a high percentage of firsts (73%). There were mistakes (34), how not to have them in a premiere in New York and after a season with too many first-round losses, but also 29 winning shots, leg agility and confidence in those moments in which she plays in balance. Much superior in the first set and she got a bit tangled up in the second, but in a tie break, the Spaniard breathes and picks up the pace: two hours and two minutes on the court. Also, relief, need, faith. Still low profile, but overcome the fear of the premiere, which she had not achieved at Roland Garros or Wimbledon, she has to think about the next step: the Czech Linda Fruhvirtova. There is tennis, and already a victory to believe it in this US Open.
