The Spaniard and his entire tennis repertoire / Photo: X@ArgentinaOpen – Credit Sergio Llamera
The Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz, top favorite, successfully began the defense of the title at the Argentina Open with a comfortable victory over the Argentine Camilo Ugo Carabelli, whom he defeated this Thursday 6-2 and 7-5 in a match in which he showed some subtleties of his varied repertoire.
Alcaraz, born in the Spanish city of Murcia and number two on the planet behind Serbian Novak Djokovic, exhibited his “top ten” hierarchy against Ugo Carabelli for one hour and 40 minutes, in front of about 4,500 people who came to see him in action on the central court of the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club.
The 20-year-old from Murcia will continue his path in the Buenos Aires ATP this Friday against the surprising Italian Andrea Vavassori 152), who entered the tournament after having gone through the classification and drew two rounds, the first against the Brazilian Thiago Seyboth Wild (83 ) and the last in the match that opened the day on Thursday with a victory over the Serbian Laslo Djere (35) by 6-4 and 7-5.
Alcaraz, champion of the US Open in 2022 and Wimbledon in 2023, the last of the 12 titles he won in his career, took a while to adjust to the match at the beginning, so he was down 2-1 in the score against Ugo Carabelli.
The Argentine, who emerged from the classification and won the initial round against the Peruvian Juan Pablo Varillas (85) in straight sets, received the support of the public who rewarded the attitude he showed throughout the match with applause.
Among that audience was Boca goalkeeper Sergio “Chiquito” Romero, in a kind of return of kindness since the Spanish tennis prodigy was at La Bombonera on Wednesday, in the 2-0 victory over Central Córdoba in Santiago del Estero. .
Alcaraz and Carabelli, before the start of the match / Photo: X @ArgentinaOpen
After that adverse start, Alcaraz righted the course of the match when he broke the Argentine’s serve and took a 4-2 lead, then maintained his and closed 6-2 for the first important lead.
The Murcian took the set after having adjusted his first serve (he was 64 percent efficient in the set) and also when he took risks with angled, deep shots and enormous power, thus achieving 10 “winners” and making 9 errors not forced, with that attitude of going in search of the point and always taking risks.
Ugo Carabelli, monitored from the stands by his coach, former tennis player Carlos Berlocqchose his shots better at the beginning of the second set, did not shoot for the sake of shooting as he had been doing in the final part of the first, and thus achieved a break of service and then closed his service game with a volley to go ahead by 2- 0.
After that favorable segment for the 24-year-old Argentine, the reaction of Alcaraz came, who began to impose his greatest ball speed, hit with enormous acceleration and his shots allowed him to tilt the game in his favor.
Alcaraz in La Bombonera / Photo X@BocaJrsOficial.
The Spaniard took the lead 5-3 with pure power with total control of the stage against an enthusiastic rival like Ugo Carabelli who tried to stretch the match as much as possible to enjoy the experience of facing a “top ten” destined to write an important story in the tennis.
That attitude allowed Ugo Carabelli to even out the match, with a proposal to exchange “palazos” from the right that balanced the score 5 to 5.
The Argentine, who was champion this year in the Brazilian Challenger in Piracicaba (he won the final against Federico Coria) showed his best version and that forced Alcaraz to push himself to the maximum in order to close the match.
In that context, the Murcian went ahead 6-5 with his serve and then did not fail again, thus connecting precise forehand shots that allowed him to break Ugo Carabelli’s serve at zero, to achieve the final victory by 6-2 and 7 -5 and start thinking about your next rival, the Italian Vavassori.
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“I am very happy to play in this tournament again. Last year I had good memories not only for having won the title, but also for the love of the people. I wanted to feel that energy again,” expressed Alcaraz moments after having settled among the eight best in the tournament,
“Ugo Carabelli is a very tough tennis player, with a lot of rhythm, and also having the public on his side motivated him more,” concluded the Murcian, who remains undefeated in Buenos Aires with five victories, four of them last year.
2024-02-15 23:33:00
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