The bugs bothered Carlos Alcaraz in his first Australian Open match in two years, as did veteran Richard Gasquet, in fact.
In the first round, at least.
After taking an hour and 12 minutes to win the first set in the tiebreaker, Alcaraz recovered and took an additional hour before closing the match in three sets of 7-6 (5), 6- 1, 6-2 against the 37-year-old Frenchman on Tuesday evening.
The first two games ended after 17 minutes, in particular because the second seed took many minutes to get rid of an insect that was bothering him behind the baseline. He still held on to level the score at 1-1.
Both players used their rackets to chase bugs off the court after the eighth game, and Alcaraz did it again after the first set.
The distractions were much less noticeable after that, at least until the Spaniard served for the match and found himself tied five times before closing the books with an ace.
He made a few drop shots and offered a few cut balls which forced Gasquet to run relentlessly. According to him, this approach demonstrated that “I play for myself, although I always try to entertain the people who watch tennis.”
“My game improved from set to set,” he noted. Towards the end, my level of play was quite high. »
He will face the Italian Lorenzo Sonego in the next round, who defeated the Briton Daniel Evans 4-6, 7-6 (8), 6-2 and 7-6 (4).
Last year, Alcaraz withdrew from the tournament due to a right leg injury. This was one of the few blemishes on the record of Alcaraz, who has acquired two major titles in four Grand Slam tournaments – at the United States Open in 2022 and at Wimbledon last year -, in addition to his numerous participation in the semi-finals.
Gasquet participated in the Australian Open for the 17the times in his career, and at his 73e Grand Slam tournament overall — tied for third place in this regard with Novak Djokovic.
The Frenchman lost in the first round in Auckland last week, ending his streak of 843 consecutive weeks in the world top 100 rankings, which began in April 2005.
Olympic champion Alexander Zverev also won his first match at Melbourne Park on Tuesday, a day after a judge decided to put him on trial in an assault trial later this year in Germany.
Zverev, seeded sixth, conceded the first set, before coming from behind to defeat his compatriot Dominik Koepfer 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3), 6-3 in the evening at Margaret Court Arena. The 26-year-old German is accused of attacking a woman during an altercation which allegedly occurred in Berlin in May 2020. He has always denied these allegations.
The 11e top seed Casper Ruud defeated Albert Ramos-Viñolas 6-1, 6-3, 6-1, while Cameron Norrie ousted Juan Pablo Varillas 6-4, 6-4, 6-2. Grigor Dimitrov, 13e top seed, beat Márton Fucsovics 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (1) and 6-2.
For his part, the Indian Sumit Nagal signed the second victory of his career in a Grand Slam main draw by surprising the 31ste top seed, Alexander Bublik, 6-4, 6-2 and 7-6 (5).