For 46 minutes on Wednesday night in Arthur Ashe Stadium, Carlos Alcaraz looked human. Broken in the seventh game of the opening set, after missing a break point opportunity in the previous game, he suddenly found himself trailing 6-4 to 22-year-old Portuguese Jaime Faria.
Perhaps Alcaraz, never so undercooked at a Grand Slam in his career, wasn’t ready for prime time after all?
As it turns out he’s more than fine. Less than two hours later and the defending champion was celebrating another satisfying victory with his fans in Arthur Ashe Stadium, his comeback on track and steaming towards the third round.
The 23-year-old rallied past 72nd-ranked Faria, winning 18 of the final 23 games to notch a 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 6-2 victory and booked a third-round clash with China’s Wu Yibing.
When you play against someone like Jaime, it is difficult. With the serve he has—the speed of his serve and the incredible bounce he gets on his second serve—it is difficult to take the initiative. He is also a player who plays extremely well from the baseline.
“There was really only one game where I didn’t feel completely comfortable with my serve. He broke me, and I ended up losing the first set,” Alcaraz said in Spanish during his press conference.
“But overall, I felt very good with my movement and my shots. Above all, I was able to recognize what was happening during the match and manage the different situations better.”
In the press room beneath Arthur Ashe Stadium just after midnight, Alcaraz said he would have liked to avoid having to come from behind, but admitted that the experience was probably a good exercise to build trust in the wrist that forced him off the tour for four and a half months after he first injured it in Barcelona in mid-April.
“I know once I step on the court, I just have to go for it every time. I got to feel normal. I have to, you know, hit like I was hitting before the injury, and let’s see what happens.”
Carlos Alcaraz
“In the end, I realized that playing four sets, it was really good for me,” he said. “To test everything physically, to test my body, how I feel, and tomorrow how I’m going to feel after this match, after four sets.
“I’m just happy that I was able to play good tennis, during the four sets, but obviously the second match of the night [session], I just wanted to be quicker.”
As far as the injury in relation to his forehand goes, Alcaraz says he is playing uninhibited.
“Obviously competition is a totally different world than practice,” he said. “I’ve been practicing normally, hitting the forehand with a lot of freedom and without thinking about the wrist any time in the practices or in the matches.
“I know once I step on the court, I just have to go for it every time. I got to feel normal. I have to, you know, hit like I was hitting before the injury, and let’s see what happens.”
Alcaraz finished with 43 winners against 29 unforced errors and reached a maximum serve speed of 130.
Most important, he stretched his Grand Slam winning streak to 16, a run that started with his title in Flushing last year. There will be more tests to come, for certain, but so far Alcaraz’s form has exceeded expectations.
Alcaraz harped on the fact that he’s back because he’s healthy, and because he missed playing at the highest level.
“I missed the nerves, the pressure, the tense and difficult moments, and the challenge of figuring out how to handle them,” he said. “Right now, I don’t have expectations beyond trying to remain as healthy as possible and finishing the tournament healthy, regardless of how far I go.
“In the important moments, I don’t think about anything beyond doing what I have to do: playing aggressively, maintaining my style and not losing my identity. That is something I haven’t forgotten, and I have tried to put it into practice during these matches.”
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