Two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz confirmed no signal of being hampered by a nagging arm damage as he eased to victory in his opening match on the Madrid Open on Friday.
The third-ranked Alcaraz brushed apart Alexander Shevchenko 6-2, 6-1 on the outside clay contained in the Caja Magica in his first match in practically a month.
Alcaraz was coming off a proper arm damage that stored him from enjoying in Monte Carlo and Barcelona. He had mentioned this week that he wasn’t certain whether or not he might play in Madrid.
“I didn’t understand how I might really feel on the courtroom, and I had my doubts,” Alcaraz mentioned. “I had began follow this week taking issues very straightforward and slowly choosing up the depth, and I nonetheless had doubts swimming in my thoughts. However in the present day there was none of that. I shocked even myself and I’m proud of how good I felt.”
This was Alcaraz’s first match since dropping to Grigor Dimitrov within the Miami Open quarterfinals practically one month in the past. Madrid is the Spaniard’s first look on the European clay courtroom swing — he struggled in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro in February — as he goals to win his first French Open title subsequent month.
The Spaniard mentioned that he can be comfortable to play “three of 4 matches” on the ATP 1000 event.
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Alcaraz, who had a first-round bye, performed with a wrapping masking most of his proper arm from his wrist up previous his elbow.
However he appeared just about like the identical aggressive participant who has dominated right here for the previous two years and given Spanish tennis followers hope that there’s life after Rafael Nadal.
Alcaraz broke Shevchenko’s serve 4 instances and can subsequent face Thiago Seyboth Wild after the Brazliian beat Lorenzo Musetti 6-4, 6-4.