:quality(85)//cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/SMKHES7VRNPMHOX5Z4FV2REUDU.jpg "Berrettini steps forward; Alcaraz and Norrie leave Acapulco 1")
ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) — Matteo Berrettini won all seven games he played Tuesday when he returned to the courts and advanced to the second round of the Abierto Mexicano de Tenis, which suffered the unexpected losses of Carlos Alcaraz and Cameron Norrie.
The Italian earned his victory over Alex Molcan, who retired in the second set with a wrist injury.
The 26-year-old Italian played his first match since January 17, when he suffered a first-round loss to Andy Murray at the Australian Open. He won the first set 6-0 and was leading 1-0 in the second when Molcan retired.
Berettini, who led Italy to the United Cup final, will face Elias Ymer. The Swede surprised and left Adrian Mannarino on the road, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4.
Ymer entered the tournament at the last minute due to the retirement of Norrie, who cited fatigue as the reason for saying goodbye.
“Unfortunately I have to retire from Acapulco,” Norrie said in one of her Instagram Stories. “It’s one of my favorite tournaments and it’s really hard to retire.”
Alcaraz, world number two and first seed in this 500 tournament, traveled to the Mexican resort after competing at the Rio de Janeiro Open and was due to play a match against American McKenzie McDonald on Tuesday night.
“Unfortunately I won’t be able to play the Mexican Open,” Alcaraz said on his official social media. “It hurts me a lot not to compete here, but now it’s time to think about recovering to try to be ready as soon as possible.”
McDonald took advantage of the absence to advance to the next round with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Italian Luciano Darderi, who came on as a last-minute relief.
In the final result of the day, Alex De Minaur had no trouble beating local Rodrigo Pacheco 6-1, 6.2
The Australian, seeded eighth in Acapulco, will face Jacopo Berrettini. Matteo’s brother, from qualifying, eliminated Oscar Otte, who withdrew through injury.
In other results: Nuno Borges beat Nick Chapell 6-3, 7-6(3) and Brandon Nakashima beat Daniel Altmaier 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.
