World No.2 Carlos Alcaraz secured a comprehensive 6-1, 6-0, 6-3 win against Italy’s Mattia Bellucci to advance to the third round in the ongoing US Open. In the opening set, the Spaniard raced to a 5-0 lead, breaking the Italian serve on two occasions.
It was a similar story in the second set as Alcaraz bageled Bellucci in the second set. The Italian came up with a better performance, holding his serve in the first three games but Alcaraz was able to get a break in the seventh game.
Alcaraz was beaten in the second round in the previous edition of the US Open by Botic van de Zandschulp and he admitted he was feeling the pressure before taking the court on Wednesday.
“If I’m honest, I thought about last year when I stepped on the court. Some bad thoughts,” Alcaraz said in his post-match press conference. “I was nervous about it, thinking, ‘Okay, I don’t want to do the same thing as I did last year’.”
“I set up some goals at the beginning of the match, and I’m trying to follow them from the first ball until the last ball,” Alcaraz said. “That’s something that helped me a lot to stay in the match — to stay positive, to stay aggressive all the time. Not having ups and downs in the match. It’s just about the goals you set up yourself and try to follow them every time.”
Alcaraz said he wanted to focus on his return and he won 58 per cent of his first-serve return points.
“The return has been an important goal for me just to be really good and keep it really improving. There are a lot of players that are serving really, really well, which I have to be ready for that,” said Alcaraz, who converted three of eleven break points against Opelka and seven of 17 against Bellucci.
“The return is the shot that you start the point with. If you make a really good return, you put yourself in the position of attack, which I really like being in the attack position as much as I can. I just put so much attention on it in every practice, in every match, and I’m paying attention to the stats about my return.”
Alcaraz will face Italy’s Luciano Darderi in the third round on Friday.
