Carlos Alcaraz wins with solvency in his debut in Barcelona

Alejandro Davidovich and Casper Ruud also went to the Third Round

BARCELONA, 18 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz began his title defense in the best possible way at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell-70º Conde de Godó Trophy, with a victory over the Portuguese Nuno Borges (6-3 and 6-1) to advance to the Third Round with a solid and precise game in his reunion with the clay.

With solvency, without hesitation, with a variety of points and an iron serve, that’s how Carlos Alcaraz –world number 2 and first seed in the tournament– progressed towards the last point of the match; 3 match balls with 5-1 up and 40-0.

The 19-year-old from Murcia made a great serve that caused the rest of Nuno Borges -79th in the world and winner of 4 ‘Challengers’– to go long. This is how Alcaraz was able to celebrate his first victory in Barcelona in this edition in which he defends the title and in his first match since the ‘semi’ of the Masters 1,000 in Miami on April 1.

In 1:03 hours of the game Alcaraz ‘ate’ Borges, which went from more to less. The Portuguese was able to put up some resistance with his serve in the first set (6-3), but the great repertoire of the Murcian was breaking the morale of the Portuguese, who could barely add a game in the second set.

Alcaraz, who arrived in Barcelona last Thursday after deciding not to play –due to being limping from an injury– in Monte Carlo, chose to play this Tuesday and have, in case of victory as it was, rest on Wednesday before facing the Third Round duel on Thursday.

The other Second Round matches played this Tuesday did not give rise to the surprise. At least in terms of Casper Ruud, the third seed in the Barcelona tournament, which he beat 6-2, 7-6[1] American Ben Shelton. The Norwegian, despite suffering in the second round, is still alive after overcoming the premiere on the Rafa Nadal Court and left great points, especially at the net.

For his part, the Spanish Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, the tenth seed in this 70th Godó, beat the Argentine Tomás Martín Etcheverry (6-3 and 6-3) in just an hour and a half of the game. Davidovich took advantage of half of the 8 break balls he had and, with a solid serve despite 2 double faults and no aces, he beat Etcheverry in an unprecedented duel between the Spaniard, currently number 38 in the world, and the Argentine (59). .

Among the First Round matches, the most important was the one played, and lost, by the veteran Feliciano López against the Belgian David Goffin (7-6[3]6-7[4] and 6-0). A 2:15-hour match in which the Toledo player, a RCTB-1899 player, said goodbye to his club’s tournament at the age of 41 after 22 editions.

“I ran out of energy in the third set, a shame especially after that second set coming back. I couldn’t with my soul,” he commented on the match. “Here I dreamed that I could be a tennis player. I came to Barcelona as a child with the dream of playing this tournament. At the age of 16 I played the first Godó since qualifying, and I would have said then that it was impossible to play 22 Godó,” he added about his farewell in Barcelona, ​​the year that will end his career as a tennis player.

The rest of the Spaniards in the First Round could not overcome the day either. They lost both Jaume Munar, against the Italian of the ‘qualy’ Matteo Arnaldi (6-3 and 6-4), and Albert Ramos-Viñolas – against the Ecuadorian Emilio Gómez (6-3, 1-6 and 6-4) like Fernando Verdasco, against the Italian Francesco Passaro (6-1 and 6-1).

Another veteran, like the Argentine Diego Schwartzman, beat the young Chinese Yibing Wu 6-2, 6-2, the same result that Alexander Shevchenko got to beat the Italian Lorenzo Giustino. Pedro Cachin, also from Argentina, beat the Dutchman Gijs Brouwer 6-3, 7-5.