Without the fuss of his new look,Carlos Alcaraz returned to the US Open night session to light up the fourth day of competition and reach the third round of the New York tournament for the fourth time in his career. Absent last year, after losing to Botic Van de Zandschulp, he was not willing to suffer another setback
This time he shook the masses with his racket and went over Mattia Bellucci, 6-1, 6-0 and 6-3, in 1 hour and 36 minutes. The world number 65 was far from disturbing the number two
Carlitos has arrived fresher both mentally and tennis-wise at the final part of the season. That is why he is aiming for everything, both in terms of titles and ranking position
His crushing victory over Bellucci puts even more pressure on Jannik Sinner in the race to leave the Big Apple with the number one ranking. Sinner will play his second match on Thursday against Australia’s Alexei Popyrin, who defeated Novak Djokovic last year in the same scenario.
The Spaniard knows that, with his current consistency, it is only a matter of time before he returns to the top.If not on the courts of Flushing Meadows, it will be on the Asian tour. For the moment, Juan Carlos Ferrero’s pupil adds 50 more points and moves away from Sinner in the virtual classification to 110
Alcaraz only needs to equal the Italian’s result to snatch the top spot in the rankings. The five-time Grand Slam champion has won 56 matches this season, 12 more than the second-placed player, the inconsistent Alexander ZverevFor the 18th time in the current campaign, in a total of 62 matches, he finished without breaks against. In his debut with Reilly Opelka, he did not lose points on serve in the opening set.
In the second set against Bellucci there were only two. He finished with the 19th bagel of his career. The tennis player’s chances of success in New York depend on the ball being put into play and he knows it. If Sinner saw the damage he did to his compatriot, he can start to worry.
Italian crusade
The Spaniard will continue his Italian crusade with Luciano Darderi (32). As in his two previous matches, there is no precedent on the circuit between the two. In the last 16, he will face the winner of the French duel between Arthur Rinderknech and Benjamin Bonzi
Darderi, 23, has won four titles in his career, three of them this season in Marrakech, Bastad and Umag. Always on clay. This time it’s hard surface
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