Australian Open: Alcaraz remains strong and will now experience an unusual first half

The Spanish Carlos Alcarazsecond in the ATP world ranking, he beat the Italian Lorenzo Sonego (200) 6-4, 6-7 (3-7 at tie break), 6-3 and 7-6 (7-3) in three hours and 24 minutes and advanced to the third round of Australian Open Tennis which is played in Melbourne. With this victory, Alcaraz at the age of 20 added his 200th match on the professional circuit and has 157 victories with 12 titles, including two Grand Slams, the United States Open and Wimbledon.

Murcian’s next rival will be the Chinese Juncheng Shang (140) who defeated the Indian Sumit Nagal (137) 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 and 6-4 in two hours and 39 minutes.

“I’m very happy with my performance. The match was complicated by the wind. Even though I lost the second set, I was there. It was a great match”, commented Alcaraz referring to the wind that prevailed at Melbourne Park throughout the match. match. day.

With this victory, The Spaniard equaled his best Oceanic Open performance recorded in the 2022 editionin which he lost in five sets against the Italian Matteo Berrettini.

The incredible data of Alcaraz’s rival

Now, for the first time in his career, Carlitos Alcaraz will play against an opponent younger than him. This is China’s Juncheng Shang who is only 18 years old. Despite the statistical data, the Spaniard said that he will have no mercy: “Let’s try to eat it and not think about how much younger it is than me. I never trained or played with him. He won the third set against (Andrey) Rublev in the semi-finals in Hong Kong. “I’ll watch some of his games to learn a little bit about what his game is like.”

He also spoke about the only surviving Spaniard in the men’s draw the relationship with his older brother Álvarowho is part of his team.

“It’s getting better over the years. When we were little we always fought. He started traveling little and then became more and more part of the team. He is a role model like a brother and now I have him as a sparring partner‘” added the current Wimbledon champion, who also said he beat his brother for the first time in a club tournament at the end of the year, when he was 15.

“I think I have experienced situations from which I learned a lot. I feel like an expert player on the circuit. Grand Slam finals, you will be the number for several weeks. “I’m not very experienced, but I have experience”, concluded the Murcian, who will return to the competition this Saturday to play the third round.

Etcheverry goes with Djokovic in the early hours of Friday

The only player in the world, the Serbian Novak Djokovic, 10-time winner of the Australian Open, will play at dawn on Friday in the third round against the Argentine Tomás Etcheverry, born in La Plata 24 years ago and 32nd in the world ranking, who arrives to beat the British Andy Murray and the French Gael Monfils.

The other Argentine involved in the third round is Sebastián Báez who will face the Italian Jannik Sinner (4) this evening. The 23-year-old player from Buenos Aires, 29th in the ranking, eliminated the American JJ Wolf and the Colombian Daniel Elahi Galán.

*With agency information