Carlos Alcaraz started his bid to finish a profession Grand Slam with an imperfect however entertaining 6-1, 7-5, 6-1 win over Kazakh Alexander Shevchenko to ease into the Australian Open second spherical on Monday.
4-time main champion Alcaraz is focusing on his maiden trophy at Melbourne Park to turn out to be the youngest man to seize all 4 Grand Slam titles and the 21-year-old went all weapons blazing after a barely nervy opening recreation.
“I all the time say that it’s laborious work,” Alcaraz mentioned.
“I attempt to convey the perfect of me daily. That’s the key. Day by day I attempt to be a greater particular person and participant.”
The third seed, nonetheless fine-tuning a brand new service movement that he adopted within the off season, fended off a break level after which broke within the third recreation to take full management of the opening set which he wrapped up in double fast time.
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French Open and Wimbledon holder Alcaraz discovered his vary with some devastating winners on each flanks and went up 3-1 within the second set however world quantity 77 Shevchenko received the subsequent 4 video games as followers on Margaret Court docket Area obtained behind the underdog.
Alcaraz switched again on and struck a fiery forehand winner to arrange one other break level and drew stage within the tenth recreation as his opponent started to really feel the extraordinary strain once more and went on to give up the set.
With the momentum having swung definitively, 2022 U.S. Open champion Alcaraz reeled off video games within the third set and completed it off with an enormous ace on his fifth match level to e-book a second-round assembly with Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka.
“He’s a extremely stable participant,” Alcaraz mentioned.
“I’ve to be targeted on my photographs … Hopefully I can benefit from the match, it’s going to be powerful. I’ll attempt to produce some good tennis for folks to take pleasure in.”