Carlos Alcaraz showed no signs of his recent struggles with injury throughout his opening win at the French Open on Sunday.
The third seed cruised to a 6-1, 6-2, 6-1, victory over American lucky loser JJ Wolf in under two hours on Court Philippe-Chatrier. It was only the fifth Tour-level match the Spaniard has played since the start of April due to physical issues. Nevertheless, he largely dominated proceedings with the help of 27 winners as he broke his rival nine times to register his 46th Grand Slam win.
“I‘m really happy to be back here in Paris competing again,” Alcaraz said afterwards during his on-court interview.
“It has been a really difficult month for me. I love playing tennis and to stay away from that was hurting me.
“I tried everything that I could do to be at my one hundred per cent in Paris and I think I did it today. I’m really happy to show good tennis again.”
Alcaraz, who took to the court wearing a white protective sleeve over his right arm, has endured far from ideal preparation for this year’s event. A forearm injury has forced him to withdraw from two out of the last three Masters 1000 events on clay, as well as the Barcelona Open. The only tournament he managed to play during the European clay swing was in Madrid where he reached the quarter-finals before losing to Andrey Rublev.
However, the lack of competitive tennis in recent weeks appears to have little impact on the world No.3 who got broken at the very start of his match against Wolf before going on to win eight games in a row. Wolf, who is yet to win back-to-back matches on the ATP Tour this year, produced glimmers of his talent but was far too inconsistent to cause any trouble. Paving the way for Alcaraz to seal a two-set lead in just over 70 minutes.
There was then a brief pause to the match with the roof having to be closed due to poor weather but it had little impact on Alcaraz’s momentum. Strolling towards the finish line, he failed to convert his first match point after hitting a backhand into the net but prevailed on his second chance with the help of another Wolf mistake.
“I would have loved to play more matches (coming into the French Open) but I think I don’t need too many matches to get to one hundred per cent,” he said of his current form.
“I’m not going to lie, four matches is too low but I think I did really good preparation these past two weeks.
“I practiced this week with top players, felt really good moving and hitting the balls with my forearm is getting better and better. It’s something really good for me.
“I feel like I haven’t stopped playing tennis which is a good point for me.”
Alcaraz is now 13-0 when it comes to playing first roud matches at Grand Slam tournaments. Should he win the French Open, he will become only the third active male player to have won major titles on three different surfaces after Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
