Sports News | Defending Champions Alcaraz and Sabalenka Win Opening Matches at Madrid Open
Get latest articles and stories on Sports at LatestLY. Two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz showed no sign of being hampered by a nagging arm injury as he eased to victory in his opening match at the Madrid Open on Friday.
Madrid, Apr 26 (AP) Two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz showed no sign of being hampered by a nagging arm injury as he eased to victory in his opening match at the Madrid Open on Friday.
The third-ranked Alcaraz brushed aside Alexander Shevchenko 6-2, 6-1 on the outdoor clay inside the Caja Magica in his first match in nearly a month.
Defending champion Aryna Sabalenka faced tougher resistance in her opening match before beating Magda Linette 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 on the women's side.
Alcaraz was coming off a right arm injury that kept him from playing in Monte Carlo and Barcelona. He had said this week that he wasn't sure whether he could play in Madrid.
“I didn't know how I would feel on the court, and I had my doubts,” Alcaraz said.
“I had started practice this week taking things very easy and slowly picking up the intensity, and I still had doubts swimming in my mind. But today, there was none of that. I surprised even myself and I am happy with how good I felt.”
This was Alcaraz's first match since losing to Grigor Dimitrov in the Miami Open quarterfinals nearly a month ago.
Madrid is the Spaniard's first appearance on the European clay court swing — he struggled in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro in February — as he aims to win his first French Open title next month.
The Spaniard said that he would be happy to play “three of four matches” at the ATP 1000 tournament.
Alcaraz, who had a first-round bye, played with a wrapping covering most of his right arm from his wrist up past his elbow.
But, he looked pretty much like the same aggressive player who has dominated here for the past two years and given Spanish tennis fans hope that there is life after Rafael Nadal.
Alcaraz broke Shevchenko's serve four times and will next face Thiago Seyboth Wild after the Brazilian beat Lorenzo Musetti 6-4, 6-4.
Eighth-ranked Andrey Rublev snapped a four-game losing streak by defeating Facundo Bagnis 6-1, 6-4. Rublev's last win came at Indian Wells in March.
Tommy Paul got past qualifier Lukas Klein 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-4 in his first clay-court match of the season after missing Monte Carlo due to injury.
SABALENKA'S SLOW START
The second-ranked Sabalenka struggled with her serve at times against Linette, but the two-time Australian Open winner struck her 10th ace on match point at the Caja Magica in Spain's capital.
Sabalenka got some help from the net to get a key break and go up 5-3 in the third set when Linette was unable to reach a shot by the Belarusian that clipped the top of the tape.
Top-ranked Iga Swiatek won her opening match on Thursday. Sabalenka beat Swiatek in last year's final in Madrid and also won here in 2021.
Fourth-seeded Elena Rybakina beat Lucia Bronzetti 6-4, 6-3 to take her season-leading win haul to 27 as she seeks her fourth title of 2024.
American Ashlyn Krueger downed Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-3, 6-3, while 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva also advanced along with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Carolina Garcia, and Jasmine Paolini. (AP)
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)