Rio de Janeiro, February 22. Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz suffered more than expected to beat him on his Rio de Janeiro Open debut against Brazilian Mateus Alves, who is ranked 556 in the ATP rankings and beat 6-4, 6- 4 in a match that started on Tuesday and ended on Wednesday due to rain.
Alcaraz, defending champion, world number 2 and fresh off the Argentine Open title, struggled to lubricate the Brazilian Jockey Club’s clay-court machinery against a rival invited by the organization.
After Tuesday’s game was suspended due to rain when leading 6-4, 5-3, the Spaniard needed less than five minutes on Wednesday to confirm victory in a game that lasted an hour and 56 minutes .
The vigorous campeón del Abierto de Estados Unidos will beat in octaves in Rio al Italiano Fabio Fognini (86 ATP), that will impuso al Chileno Marcelo Barrios Vera (196 ATP) por 6-2 y 6-3 en un partido de una hora y 30 minutes.
Fognini, who was a runner-up at the Rio Open in 2015 after beating Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals, was precisely the victim of Alcaraz in the semi-finals in Brazil last year, when the Murcian won his first ATP tournament title.
The Italian also had to resume a match suspended due to rain on Tuesday, when he won 6-2, 6-5.
On his debut in Rio in 2023 after the title in 2020, the scenario did not go as planned for the Murcian. Alves made a goalless first break and went 0-2 to the cheers of an incredulous crowd.
The Spaniard reacted quickly and in the sequence he recovered the break. 2-2.
Overcoming fear, the two tennis players held their serves until the seventh game, when Alcaraz broke the resistance of the Brazilian to serve 4-3.
Supported by the home crowd, Alves held on to the set and forced the Spaniard to clinch his serves to win a first set that lasted 49 minutes.
Despite a delay on the scoreboard in front of a Grand Slam champion, the young Brazilian promise did not let go at the start of the second set.
He started by winning his serve and came to scare Alcaraz by leveling the rest 40-0.
Alves’ right was spinning wildly and the world number 2 was struggling to score first serves.
The momentum of the young promise of Sao José do Rio Preto continued until the fifth game of the second set, when he lost his serve due to some masterful shots from Alcaraz.
It was a mirage, as the El Palmar-born man failed to hold the break and allowed Alves to level the set at three.
At this time, the game stopped for a few moments to evacuate part of the public from the Jockey Club for security reasons in front of the many rays that lit up the sky of the capital of Fluminense, and it began to rain lightly.
The change in weather conditions was bad for Alves, who lost his serve in agonizing fashion and allowed Alcaraz to get up 4-3 and serve.
The rain became more intense and the match had to be suspended just as Alcaraz was about to subtract to close the game 5-3 in their favour.
This Wednesday, at the resumption, Alves confirmed his serve and reduced it to 5-4, but the Spaniard also confirmed his without losing a single point to win the set 6-4 and the match 2-0.