TENNIS
Carlos Alcaraz avoids the upset in a thrilling opener at Queen’s
The Spanish star, who will be world No. 1 again if he wins the tournament, managed to ‘survive’ and beat Arthur Rinderknech.
Carlos Alcaraz’s mission is to win the Queen’s tournament to come back to the top of the men’s ranking and lift his 11th ATP title.
The Murcia-bred player was set to play with Arthur Fils, but the French withdrew due to injury, so he ended up playing against lucky loser Arthur Rinderknech, who had previously been defeated by Grigor Dimitrov.
Carlitos, who lost to Novak Djokovic in the French Open semifinals after suffering some cramps, didn’t have an easy opening round at the ATP 500 Cinch Tournament.
The season on grass is the shortest one, and given Alcaraz’s young career as a professional, he hasn’t had lots of time to get familiar with the surface. He has officially competed only at Wimbledon in 2021 and 2022, as well as in the junior tournament in 2019.
Alcaraz, against the ropes
While the Spaniard was a massive favorite going into the game against Rinderknech, the 20-year-old Alcaraz had to come from a set down to finally emerge victorious in three hard-fought sets.
Although Juan Carlos Ferrero suffered watching Carlos play, he finally came out on top 4-6 7-5 7-6(3) in two hours and 34 minutes to defeat the French player, the current world No. 83.
In the third set, Carlitos had to play at his best to come back from a 0-2 disadvantage to force the tie-break, where he managed to control his nerves and close the match to advance to the next round.
Now Alcaraz will face another tough test, as he will play against Czech rising star Jiri Lehecka in a promising last-16 game.
After Queen’s, Alcaraz plans to feature at the Hurlingham exhibition tournament to keep preparing for Wimbledon, which will start on July 3.