Alcaraz Starts Off Slowly

Carlos Alcaraz's participation in the US Open began slowly, losing a set to Li Tu, ranked 186th in the world, who took advantage of his momentum from the qualifying rounds to push the Spaniard for two hours and 44 minutes (6-2, 4-6, 6-3, and 6-1).

The Spaniard, seeded third behind Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic, arrived in New York without the concern of the ankle sprain he suffered during a training session that forced him to cut it short. He confirmed that it was just a scare and was able to compete without hindrance - apart from a precautionary bandage on his right adductor which has now become routine - against an inexperienced Tu, who at 28 years old has only won one ATP-level match, on the grass of Newport last year.

With this resume, which only includes nine matches at the highest level, Tu passed the qualifying rounds with three good victories, including one against Spaniard Alejandro Moro, and presented himself at Arthur Ashe to challenge Alcaraz. Not in the first set where the Murcian committed only two unforced errors and did not allow any break points on his serve, but in the second set where his number of errors rose to 18, more than in the other three sets played.

"He surprised me there. The difference was that in the first set I had two unforced errors and then 18. Many unnecessary errors. I need to improve on avoiding these lapses," admitted the Spaniard, who has never lost in the first round in his fifteen Grand Slam appearances.

With this in mind, Alcaraz could not break Tu until 3-3 in the third set when he capitalized on his third break point of the set and started a streak of nine consecutive games that secured him the match.

The victory allows Alcaraz to join Bjorn Borg as the second player in history who needed the fewest matches to reach sixty Grand Slam victories (70), only behind John McEnroe, who needed 69.

"It's a great statistic," responded the Spaniard at a press conference. "I didn't know it; I hadn't seen it. We work day by day for this, to try to be better, win matches, give ourselves the opportunity to reach the final rounds in each tournament. It's a shame that McEnroe beat me by one match. For me, it's an honor to share these statistics with great sports legends."

His next opponent will be Dutchman Botic Van de Zandschulp, who surprisingly defeated Denis Shapovalov (6-4, 7-5, and 6-4), and whom he has beaten twice in his career; at the Australian Open 2021 and Basel 2022. Alcaraz has never lost more than four games in a single set against the Dutchman.

On Tuesday's session, Jaume Munar fell to Gabriel Diallo (6-4, 3-6, 6-3, and 7-5) and Cristina Bucsa lost to Sara Errani (3-6, 6-0 and 6-4), while Jessica Bouzas eliminated Petra Martic (6-3 and 6-0) and Sara Sorribes defeated Alexa Noel (6-1 and 6-3).