Alcaraz quickly disposes of Borges

(Barcelona) Carlos Alcaraz got off to a good start at the Barcelona Tennis Open on Tuesday after easily beating Portugal’s Nuno Borges 6-3, 6-1.

The 19-year-old Spaniard will try to successfully defend a first career title on the ATP Tour this week. And Alcaraz made sure to send a strong message to their next opponents, after flaunting all their power against Borges, 79^e player in the world.

The No. 2 player in the world was also effective on return of serve in the duel that lasted 63 minutes, and he converted five of his seven break points to improve his record to 19-2 so far this season.

Alcaraz, the tournament favorite, already triumphed in Buenos Aires and Indian Wells earlier this year. He is guaranteed to face one of his compatriots in the third round, since Roberto Bautista Agut must cross swords with Bernabe Zapata Miralles at the end of the day on the Pista Rafael Nadal.

Earlier on Tuesday it wasn’t easy, but Casper Ruud earned his bye to the quarter-finals by beating American Ben Shelton 6-2, 7-6 (1).

The Norwegian ended the second-round duel after 70 minutes, despite the American overcoming a 3-5 deficit in the second set to force a tiebreaker. This victory of the third player in the world on Catalan clay allowed him to level his career record at 1-1 against the 20-year-old left-handed tennis player.

“He played well, just like me, said Ruud after the duel. I played a flawless first set, and he made some costly mistakes… But the second set was much tougher; the exchanges were much higher.

“It can get difficult. In the first set you get a multitude of points on a silver platter, then suddenly he started to be totally watertight defensively. It’s difficult to adapt to someone who transforms like that in the middle of a match, but I’m happy to have kept my composure and to have had a very good tiebreaker. he concluded.

Ruud quickly took control of the match by exploiting his excellent first serve and powerful forehand, jostling Shelton relentlessly.

The 24-year-old then used his experience – he’s been a runner-up in nine clay-court tournaments so far in his career – to stem the rise of the 37^e world racket in the second set. Ruud thus erased four of the five break points offered to his opponent, who was playing only a fifth career game on this playing surface.

Ruud will face in the quarter-finals the winner of the duel between the 15^e seeded Francisco Cerundolo and Italy’s Francesco Passaro. The Norwegian, who also advanced to this stage of the competition at Barcelona last year, will be hoping to build on his momentum after winning the title at Estoril earlier this month.

In addition, Diego Schwartzman easily took the measure of China’s Wu Yibing 6-2, 6-2. The Argentinian will now cross swords with the fourth seed, the Italian Jannik Sinner.

Among the other players who triumphed on Tuesday are the 10^e seeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Belgian David Goffin, Argentinian Pedro Cachin, Colombian Emilio Gomez, Italian Matteo Arnaldi and Russian Alexander Shevchenko.

American Frances Tiafoe (no 5) will also be in action on Tuesday. As for the Ontarian Denis Shapovalov, he should begin his course in Barcelona on Wednesday, against the Slovak Jozef Kovalik.