Carlos Alcaraz beats Otto Virtanen in Barcelona Open first round
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Carlos Alcaraz during his first round match against Otto Vortanen of Finland at the Barcelona Open.
EPA
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BARCELONA – World No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz is in a rush to reclaim the top ranking, and he is hoping that his fitness will hold up as he eased to a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Finnish qualifier Otto Virtanen on Tuesday to begin his push for a third Barcelona Open title.
The Spaniard, who lost the Monte Carlo Masters final to new No. 1 Jannik Sinner on Sunday, can reclaim top spot if he triumphs this week in Barcelona, as he did in 2022 and 2023.
Alcaraz, who finished as runner-up last year in Catalonia, started the first-round clash slowly but found his rhythm in a dominant second set.
“It feels great to be back and to get another win in front of my people in Barcelona, it means everything,” said the 22-year-old, who will next take on Czech Tomas Machac in the second round.
“I didn’t have much time to adjust in terms of training – this morning was the first practice session I’d done here in Barcelona, which makes it a bit hard to find good sensations at the start.
“I’m happy to have come through the problems I had in the first set. Little by little I started feeling maybe a bit better, and I’m happy to win the match in straight sets and give myself another chance to try to feel a bit better in the next round.”
Alcaraz received some treatment from the physio on his forearm but said he hoped it was “nothing” and without time to rest between tournaments that it was normal to have “little niggles”.
World No. 130 Virtanen started strongly in front of a full crowd at the court named after Spanish great Rafael Nadal, pushing hard on Alcaraz’s serve, while holding his own relatively comfortably.
However, Alcaraz broke in the 10th and final game of the first set to take the lead.
In the second set, the players exchanged breaks before Alcaraz broke to love and consolidated for a 4-1 lead.
He opened up a triple match point on Virtanen’s serve and hit a cross-court winner to capitalise on the first of those.
Earlier on, second seed Lorenzo Musetti defeated Martin Landaluce 7-5, 6-2 for his first win since the Australian Open.
Australian Alex de Minaur overcame Sebastian Ofner 7-6 (9-7), 6-4, while Karen Khachanov suffered a surprise 6-3, 6-4 defeat by Camilo Ugo Carabelli.
Fifth seed Andrey Rublev saw off Mariano Navone in straight sets and Arthur Fils outlasted Terence Atmane 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (9-7). AFP
