The Spanish Carlos Alcaraz is in the second round of the US Open after two and a half hours of intense match against the Argentine Sebastián Báez who retired when the third set was played and the score was 7-5, 7-5 and 2-0.
Sebastián Báez of 21 years old and 37 of the ATP ranking had a hard time bringing Alcaraz who had to appeal to his best variants to win the first two sets.
“No one expects to advance in this way. I feel sorry for Sebastián, he is a great player, he fought all the plays and he did it like a brave man”, said Alcaraz when being interviewed on the field of the Arthur Ashe stadium.
Alcaraz of 19 years old and 4 in the world and seeded at the Flushing Meadows tournament as No. 3, he is emerging as one of the favorites to reach the final instances of the US Open 2022.
Carlos Alcaraz caused quite a stir at last year’s US Open, upsetting then-World No. 3 Stefanos Tsitsipas in the third round and becoming the youngest US Open quarter-finalist in the Open Era.
“I remember the previous year as one of the best moments of my career. Being No. 4 in the world is very special and returning to Arthur Ashe is incredible for me”, added the Spaniard after the suspension of the match.
This season Alcaraz has shown a vertiginous growth. He has won four ATP titles, including two Masters 1000 in Miami and Madrid. In the latter, he successively defeated Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Alexander Zverev.
However, Alcaraz has yet to reach a Grand Slam semifinal. In the US Open, some analysts choose the young man from El Palmar as one of the likely players to advance to that instance.
In the same way, Alcaraz is seen as the tennis player who will inherit the seat of the Big Three: Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic.
The match
Alcaraz was far from his best moment this Tuesday. He made 47 unforced errors. The match got complicated in the second set, just when Alcaraz seemed to have everything under control.
The Spaniard gave up an early lead, but, while he was leading 3-3, he saved three points from break. In a fourth, Baez lobbed quickly over Alcaraz. The speedy Spaniard ran and almost impossible to stay in the game. That stressful game lasted more than 10 minutes, and although Alcaraz eventually lost his serve, he immediately broke to once again take control.
Baez was serving at 5-6 and immediately faced a deficit from 0-40. Alcaraz couldn’t capitalize on any of those points to close out the set, but in a quarter, the Spaniard blasted a forehand down the line with a winner and let out a roar as he finally won the second set and with it, a decisive lead. in the match.
In the third, Alcaraz quickly took a 2-0 lead, and after another extraordinarily close point, Báez began to cramp. The Argentine quickly gave up, thus giving Alcaraz his pass to the second round.
Báez shows himself to be a promising tennis player. He is a player who plays deep, compact, fast and efficient at both ends, a game that in some passages looked even more effective than Alcaraz’s and that was applauded by the public at Ashe.