Stefanos Tsitsipas cruised past Roberto Carballes Baena 6-3 7-6(4) 6-2 to reach the third round at Roland Garros.
The Greek played a near-flawless match to reach the last 32 in Paris as he aims for his maiden Grand Slam title.
Tsitsipas is in Alcaraz’s quarter of the draw and is looking to send a statement of intent to the rest of the draw that he can contend for the title.
Next up for Tsitsipas on Friday is either Diego Schwartzman or Nuno Borges.
The world number five did struggle on serve initially to start the match but gained the early break in the third game with some powerful backhands.
As expected Carballes Baena retaliated with some consistent baseline play, forcing Tsitsipas into engaging in the longer rallies.
The Spaniard had a decent clay season entering Roland Garros and displayed those qualities in the fourth game by creating a break point.
However Tsitsipas survived the game with some clutch play to take a 3-1 lead and would remain efficient throughout the rest of the set, claiming it 6-3.
After a couple of tight service games, to start the second set Tsitsipas once again raised his level on return breaking twice with some powerful returning.
That didn’t mean much in terms of score advantage for Tsitsipas as Carballes Baena was just as efficient on return and took advantage of some tactical errors from the fifth seed.
The Spaniard broke straight back on both occasions as the second set was level at 4-4.
There was a high standard on serve as both players constructed points effectively and were really smart with their methods in order to remain efficient on serve.
In the end there was nothing to separate them as the second set went to a tiebreak with both players impressing in crucial moments.
The tiebreak remained close but Tsitsipas produced world-class shot-making when it mattered most as a forehand winner secured the tiebreak 7-4.
From then on, it was one-way traffic as an early double break lead effectively secured the third set in the match as Tsitsipas cruised into the third round.
After an early scare against Jiri Vesely, Tsitsipas will be pleased to have won today’s contest in more straight-forward fashion as he looks forward to a third round showdown with either Diego Schwartzman or Nuno Borges.