Carlos Alcaraz’s debut at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia ended with the Spanish tennis player’s first victory in Rome. At the end of the Italian tournament, the talent from Murcia will return to the top of the ATP ranking and will lead the seeding at the Roland Garros.
Alcaraz defeated Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-4, 6-1: this is the fourth success against his countryman. None of the three direct clashes played in the past had seen the Spaniard master the field as happened in many other challenges.
Even today, at least in the first set, Alcaraz had to recover from a disadvantage, fight on every point and not lose focus in the important moments. A double fault prevented the 20-year-old from taking home the opening game; two backhand errors to immediately equalize the accounts.
The counter break came with a one game delay: Ramos-Vinolas didn’t find the court with his backhand on the fourth opportunity given to his rival. After a series of interlocutory games, Alcaraz raised the pace and at 5-4 forced his rival into a complicated forehand recovery, which ended very long. Ramos-Vinolas led 40-15 in the tenth game.
The second half of the game gave back to the spectators the best version of Alcaraz, who pushed from the baseline with his backhand and reached the 3-0 in a few minutes. The winner of the last edition of the US Open took off and sealed the double advantage in the sixth game by striking his countryman with a fantastic forehand.
The twenty-year-old world tennis talent spoke at a press conference and revealed his impressions: “I feel great, the conditions were quite complicated but other than that I loved feeling the warmth and love of the people. As I said on the pitch it was fantastic to have a lot of people in the stands, today was a tough, exhausting day. Waiting all day is never easy, but it’s always great to play here in Rome.”
In a match heavily affected by rain and a long suspension, Andrey Rublev showed the great strides he has made mentally.
The Russian did not let himself be conditioned by the interruptions and gained access to the third round by eliminating Alex Molcan with a score of 6-3, 6-4 in one hour and twenty minutes.
In the women’s tournament, Caroline Garcia played a subdued match and left Rome prematurely losing in two sets against the qualified Camila Osorio.