MADRID, 29 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz had a solid debut this Monday at the Roland Garros tournament, the second ‘Grand Slam’ of the season and which is played on clay, after defeating the Italian Flavio Cobolli in three sets 6-0, 6- 2, 7-5 after less than two hours of play.
The Murcian, first favorite in Paris, where he was a quarterfinalist last year, began his attempt to win his second ‘big’ after the last United States Open and dominated his rival, classified from the previous one, rookie in a tournament of this dimension and that only gave him problems in the third and final set.
The man from El Palmar, who left some points of true genius, always dominated with his powerful drive, with which he hammered the Italian, and barely made any concessions with the service, except for a small scare in the last set, which he knew how to solve. In addition, in the network he was very refined and full of quality.
The start of the world number one Suzanne Lenglen was devastating. Cobolli, more tense because of the stage and the opponent, accused him and in less than half an hour he had already given him up for a ‘rosco’ and winning only three points from the rest. After losing the first eight games, the Italian was able to celebrate his first and that encouraged him somewhat to increase equality until Alcaraz accelerated to get the ticket to the second round very close.
However, the 21-year-old from Florence, ranked 159 in the world, decided to let go and created problems in the third set where he seemed more comfortable, also seeing himself ahead on the scoreboard and with his right hand replicating that of the Murcian. He could not relax, except when he had to raise a 15-40 in the fourth game, and he saw the victory close when he finally broke with 3-3.
The champion in New York had 5-4 and served, but Cobolli pressed him and he erred in some decision on the track, which cost him his first break and lengthened the clash, not too much, because he returned it immediately afterwards. This time he didn’t get lost to seal his pass to a second round where he will face the Japanese Taro Daniel.
BAUTISTA AND BOLSOVA, ZAPATA AND RAMOS PASS, ELIMINATED IN FIVE SETS
Alcaraz’s classification was accompanied by that of Roberto Bautista from Castellón, who surpassed his debut against the Chinese Wu Yibing with more comfort than expected in three sets by 7-6(4), 6-1, 6-1 and will now face the Peruvian Juan Pablo Varillas.
On the other hand, Bernabé Zapata and Albert Ramos were not so lucky, who suffered defeats in five sets, although with a different script. Thus, the Valencian, who in 2022 was the eighth finalist against Alexander Zverev, wasted two sets of advantage to finally lose to the Argentine Diego Schwartzman after more than three and a half hours 1-6, 6-7, 6-2, 6- 0, 6-4. The Catalan, on the other hand, was about to do the opposite with the Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka, champion in 2015, but fell in the fifth set after equalizing 2-0 (7-6, 6-4, 6-7, 1- 6, 6-4) after four and a half hours.
On the other hand, in the women’s draw, Aliona Bolsova, eighth finalist in 2019 and who agreed as a ‘lucky loser’, gave the first Spanish joy by getting rid of the Slovak Kristina Kucova with great authority 6-2, 6-1 in little more one hour game.