By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Friday, April 26, 2024
Two-time champion Carlos Alcaraz disarmed Alexander Shevchenko 6-2, 6-1 in a rousing return to the Mutua Madrid Open..
Photo credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty
Sequels rarely match the intensity of original performances—unless Carlos Alcaraz is driving the plot line.
Wearing a white sleeve over his cranky right forearm, a dynamic Alcaraz disarmed Alexander Shevchenko 6-2, 6-1 in a rousing return to the Mutua Madrid Open.
More: Vondrousova Shares Heartbreak of Divorce
Two-time defending Madrid champion Alcaraz scored his 12th consecutive victory at his home Masters and was frequently downright dominant doing it.
A right forearm issue caused Alcaraz to withdraw from Monte-Carlo and Barcelona, where he was defending champion.
Launching his quest to become the first man to three-peat in Madrid, Alcaraz broke serve seven times and won 18 of 23 points played on Shevchenko’s second serve in a 68-minute thrashing.
More importantly, Alcaraz appeared to play pain-free and was producing some of the all-court spectacle that make him so popular with home fans.
Afterward, Alcaraz said his forearm felt fine on court and said he purposely took pace off his forehand to try to ensure a pain-free return today.
"I didn't hit my forehand 100%. I hit it softer than I used to hit it, but I think it helped me to, let's say, stay relaxed, and, I think more than the shots that I have to hit," Alcaraz told the media in Madrid. "But the first thing that I was thinking about when I was stepping on the court is to stay healthy, to not feel anything in the forearm.
"That's the main thing for me. And then it was the shots or the level."
The second-seeded Alcaraz, who will celebrate his 21st birthday on the day of the May 5th final, will face Thiago Seyboth Wild in round three.
Seyboth Wild defeated 28th-seeded Italian Lorenzo Musetti 6-4, 6-4 earlier today.
In his first match since he was swept by Grigor Dimitrov in the Miami Open quarterfinals last month, Alcaraz's main mission was competing without pain.
"I was really happy to not feel anything in the forearm, and after that, I could increase my intensity," Alcaraz said. "I could increase my forehand a little bit, and it was great for me this match...
"I have been doing things in the forearm to prevent injure in my full body, let's say, just to stay healthy as much as possible, to go to tournaments at 100%. This are work that I have to do every day if I want to, you know, play every tournament during the year."
Exuding energy at the outset, Alcaraz broke to open winning eight of the first 10 points for a 2-0 lead.
As coach Juan Carlos Ferrer sometimes talked to him between points, Alcaraz made sure there was no safe space for Shevchenko.
Seventeen minutes into the match, a soaring Alcaraz slammed a high forehand volley holding for 3-1 with an exclamation point shot.
By that point, sweat plastered Shevchenko’s hair to his forehead so firmly it looked like a headband.
The Spaniard’s backhand helped him batter out another break. Alcaraz jolted Shevchenko with a backhand return then bolted a sharper backhand crosscourt breaking again for 4-1.
To that point, Alcaraz’s only miscues came with his repeated drop shot attempts. Alcaraz missed two droppers in the sixth game, including netting a drop shot to gift back one break.
That was merely a self-imposed speed bump.
The Wimbledon winner blazed through the 36-minute opening set cracking 16 winners from all over the court compared to none for Shevchenko, who often found himself skidding into sliding retrievals beyond the sidelines.
A free-flowing Alcaraz slid a backhand pass for break point to stat the second set then lasered a forehand into the corner breaking for the fourth time.
The commitment to moving forward and the feel to explore short angles once he’s there separate Alcaraz from many of the elite.
Deploying the serve and volley, Alcaraz looked like a man dancing on dirt as he lifted a slick half-volley winner backing up the break at love.
Drawing his opponent forward with the dropper, Alcaraz played over Shevchenko’s head with a rainbow lob and cut off his tweener reply with a volley winner. That sequence helped Alcaraz snatch his fifth consecutive game for 3-0.
The pair traded breaks in the fourth and fifth games.
A streaking Alcaraz flicked a sliding forehand retrieval for match point and closed on a final Shevchenko error.