Despite being the two-time defending champion, Carlos Alcaraz went into the Mutua Madrid Open as a bit of a question mark.
A right-arm injury forced Alcaraz to miss both the Monte-Carlo Masters and the Barcelona Open, but the 20-year-old put any and all concerns to rest with a convincing performance during second-round action on Friday afternoon. Alcaraz followed up a bye as the No. 2 seed with a 6-1, 6-2 beatdown of Alexander Shevchenko. The Spaniard needed only one hour and eight minutes to set up a round-of-32 meeting with Thiago Seyboth Wild.
Alcaraz dropped serve twice, but he broke Shevchenko a whopping seven times in eight return games.
“I think I did pretty well, honestly,” Alcaraz assessed. “The last month I just practiced slices, volleys, and backhands, so I think it worked pretty well today. That was something I was thinking about approaching this match, trying to hit the forehand softer let’s say and trying to be aggressive with the backhand–trying to crash the net as soon as possible. I think I did a really good match in that part.”
Seyboth Wild upset Lorenzo Musetti 6-4, 6-4 on Friday after defeating Roman Safiullin by the exact same scoreline in the opening round. The Brazilian has never faced Alcaraz.
