The Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, second player in the world and title holder at the Masters 1000 in Madrid, was manhandled on Friday for his entry into the tournament by the Finn and 41st in the world Emil Ruusuvuori, but ended up winning in three sets 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.
The ocher of Madrid, which had smiled so much on him last season, this time gave him cold sweats: the young phenomenon from Murcia lost the first set, victim of the waste in his game, and continued to suffer from his inaccuracies. until the middle of the second set, where he finally ended up breaking the Finn at 4-3.
Ruusuvuori’s serve posed a challenge for the 19-year-old Spaniard, but a devastating forehand gave him a 5-3 lead in the third set and awoke the crowd to chants of “Si se puede!” » (“Yes, it’s possible!”, in Spanish).
“Very happy to have come out of a match like that in front of this audience,” reacted Alcaraz after his match, stressing the importance of a passing that reversed the trend in the second set.
“It was lucky, let’s say that (laughs). He went to the net, and I could only do that, it was my one and only and recourse. Luckily, it happened. And from there, I gained confidence, it was necessary to be patient, but I started to go upmarket”, summed up the prodigy.
Alcaraz, winner of the ATP 250 tournament in Barcelona on Sunday, will face Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov (32nd in the world) in the third round, who defeated Frenchman Grégoire Barrère (56th in the world) in the difficulty 7-6 (8/6), 7 -6 (7/2).
