Carlos Alcaraz, current Indian Wells champion, began his title defense this Friday in the Californian desert with a victoria before the Italian Matteo Arnaldi in a match that became very complicated and ended up coming back brilliantly to qualify for the third round.
The Spaniard, number 2 in the world and who did not have to play the first round as the second seed of the tournament, won 6-7(5), 6-0 and 6-1 in two hours and 14 minutes to Arnaldi, who occupies position 40 in the ATP ranking.
At the next crossing, Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, world number 31, awaits him. Auger-Aliassime has a favorable 3-1 in their four meetings so far, but Alcaraz scored the last one, precisely in the 2023 Indian Wells quarterfinals.
Aside from the exhibition he played against Rafa Nadal in Las Vegas last week, Alcaraz had not competed since he had to withdraw due to a sprained ankle in Rio de Janeiro on February 20.
There was a lot of interest to see in the first Masters 1,000 of the season how Alcaraz’s ankle responded on his return to competition and the initial sensations were positive with good mobility and no apparent problems. His unmistakable smile also appeared, but what took a long time to make an appearance was his precision and consistency on the court. El Palmar accumulated 23 unforced errors in the first set in which it was very difficult for him to find the rhythm and his game.
Alcaraz had only faced Arnaldi once and the Italian came out scalded. It was in the round of 16 of the last US Open and the Spaniard closed the match in three sets and in less than two hours. The one from San Remo offered a very different image tonight in the first set, much more courageous and solid than in that match at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York.
Despite his numerous errors and at times he was rash, Alcaraz broke his rival’s serve (4-3), but the loot did not last long as Arnaldi hit back in the next game (4-4). With a disgruntled expression, Alcaraz faced a set point against him with his serve and saved it with a hard serve and a great forehand going up to the net. “You have to play every point, every point. Let’s go,” they told him from his team with Juan Carlos Ferrero at the helm. But Arnaldi’s temperance, together with Alcaraz’s successive errors, tipped the balance in favor of the Italian in the tie break. That tough and very demanding set lasted 65 minutes, but the second, fortunately for Alcaraz, had absolutely nothing to do with it. see.
Like day and night, Alcaraz reacted wonderfully, demonstrated a superb character and He closed the next set in his favor with an incontestable 6-0 in just 26 minutes taking his right for a walk and gaining aggressiveness with his rest. Instead, Arnaldi suddenly collapsed and began to accumulate failures relentlessly. Alcaraz wasted five set points, but in the sixth he finished off the set with a much clearer outlook and with radically opposite sensations.
The script did not change in the third round, with Alcaraz clearly dominating the match, increasingly comfortable and boasting versatility in his blows and with the wind in his favor against an Arnaldi who ran out of gas. Alcaraz broke Arnaldi’s serve on the first chance he had (2-0) and, with the scare of the first set completely forgotten, completed the comeback on the fast track and the ticket for the third round was obtained.
Carballés will play with Medvedev
The Spanish tennis player Roberto Carballés He beat the Italian Flavio Cobolli this Friday in the first round and in the next match a very tough nut awaits him to crack like the Russian Daniil Medvedev.
Carballés, number 64 in the world, defeated Cobolli, who occupies position 62, by 6-4 y 6-4 in one hour and 40 minutes. This first round match should have been played on Thursday, but rain in Indian Wells forced it to be postponed to this Friday.
The Tenerife native will have a very complicated test in the next round against Medvedev, world number 4 and finalist last year in the Californian desert tournament. On that occasion, Medvedev fell to the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz, who was proclaimed champion of the first Masters 1,000 of the season.
2024-03-09 05:18:23
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