Carlos Alcaraz made his debut at the Masters 1000 in Rome with a sensational victory against the Spanish Albert Ramos (6-4 and 6-1), his debut in the Italian tournament which allows him to regain the number 1 in the ATP ranking.
Exempted in the first round due to his top seed status, the Spanish prodigy has shown he is in top form following recent victories in Barcelona and Madrid and handily beat Albert Ramos (No.72), who is not the player who led Alcaraz to the fifth set at the last Roland Garros.
The young tennis player from Murcia, who just turned 20, achieved his 20th victory in 21 matches this season on clay in just 1h26 of play. He only lost the final in Rio de Janeiro in February against the British Cameron Norrie.
Despite being unable to play at the Australian Open due to injury, Alcaraz has reached the final in five of the six tournaments he has played this yearwith four titles (Buenos Aires, Indian Wells, Barcelona and Madrid).
In this way Alcaraz presents itself as the main rival of the Serbian Novak Djokovic in Romewho is looking for his seventh title in the Masters 1000 of the Roman capital.
It is the first time in 2023 that the two players have met in a tournament. The Spaniard, for the moment, has already achieved a goal, which is to recover the number 1 in the world ranking, guaranteeing to reach Roland Garros in that position (starting May 28).
Alcaraz missed the first game of the match, but has not suffered any more ‘break’, winning eight of the last nine games played.
In the third round he will face the Czech Jiri Lehecka (n.39) or the Hungarian Fabian Marozsan (n.135).
The Russian Andrey Rublev qualified between the top seeds, while the Pole Huberts Hurkacz was eliminated by the American JJ Wolf.
Source: Clarin
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