Carlos Alcaraz Advances to Second Round at China Open: Investment in Future Tennis Stars Paying Off

The investment that the organization has made China Open With the presence of eight ‘top10’ in the table it is already bearing fruit. Six of them, the last one Carlos Alcaraz, have passed the initial screening and are in the second round. Only Stefanos Tsitsipas fell from the cartel, defeated by Nicolás Jarry.

It had been 21 days since the last time Alcaraz had dressed in shorts to play an official match. It was in the semifinals of the US Open that he lost to the Russian Daniil Medverev.

This time he was playing for the first time in China, in the capital’s tournament, in the 500 category. The Murcian had made his debut against an opponent like Yannick Hanfmann, 53rd in the ranking and who had just passed the previous round with convincing victories against the Serbians Dusan Lajovic and Miomir Kecmanovic.

Hanfmann, at 31 years old, boasted four games won against ‘top10’, three of them in the current course: Taylor Fritz and Andrey Rublev (Rome) and Stefanos Tsitsipas (Mallorca Championships).

Carlitos, that closed a score of 6-4 and 6-3, won the toss and chose to subtract to try to surprise the Karslruhe giant from the start. The organization forgot to turn on the light during the warm-up in the majestic center baptized as a diamond.

A few meters away is the Lotus track, in which Rafael Nadal became Olympic champion at the 2008 Games.

The Chinese fans shouted Alcaraz’s name, but that didn’t matter to Yannick, who only has 60 percent hearing ability.

World number two It took him three games to break his opponent’s serve. Hanfmann plays all or nothing and entered into a carousel of unforced errors that was taken advantage of by his executioner.

The German was on track to lose his fifth main draw match at a hard-court tournament this season.

It was enough for Carlitos to maintain his serve to score the initial set. Then came the reaction of his opponent, who once again tied the score at two. Misses prevailed over winning shots and returns dominated serves.

The Spaniard missed the first three break balls for 3-2. He didn’t miss in the fourth. After, enjoyed a 4-2 and 15-40. In a no-brainer, the result was 4-4. Finally, he decided the set in his favor.

Alcaraz’s fourth break would come in the third game of the continuation. It seemed like the sentence.

The pupil of Juan Carlos Ferrero He already has 59 victories in 2023the most, as well as in titles (6), which keep him alive in the objective of ending the year with the ATP leadership.

A friend in the second round

After a day of rest, the only one he will have if he reaches the final next Wednesday, hopes for Domingo Lorenzo Musetti. Generational rival, they have met twice, both on clay, with a tie of wins. To find the last precedent between the two you have to go back to the round of 16 of the last Roland Garros. Alcaraz won.

Musetti served as executioner of Karen Khachanov, who arrived at the event after winning the Open 250 in Zhuhai. The Russian paid for his fatigue, kneeling 6-3, 1-6 and 6-2.

2023-09-29 13:17:44
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