(Madrid) World No.3 Carlos Alcaraz, who is making his return from injury at the Masters 1000 in Madrid where he is double title holder, reached the round of 16 with flying colors at the expense of the Brazilian Thiago Seyboth Wild (63e) 6-3, 6-3 in 75 minutes on Sunday.
For a place in the quarter-finals, the young Spaniard will face the German Jan-Lennard Struff (24) in a repeat of the 2023 final.e), one of the players in form of the moment, freshly titled in Munich (Germany).
Alcaraz, whose participation was still uncertain at the start of the week one month before Roland-Garros, had reassured two days earlier by quickly completing his return match well at the expense of the Kazakh Alexander Shevchenko (59e) 6-2, 6-1 in 68 minutes. Without feeling any pain in his right arm, he was delighted.
Before the Spanish tournament, “Carlitos” was forced by his injured right forearm (compression of the median nerve) to withdraw from Monte-Carlo and Barcelona. So much so that he went a month without playing (loss in the quarter-finals in Miami, against Dimitrov).
Sunday afternoon, right arm still protected by a sleeve, his throttle boost set to 3 everywhere – out-of-time rise followed by a cushioned volley and winning return among others – allowed him to make the difference in the first set. He then quickly escaped 5 games to 0 in the second set.
The only turbulence: when a series of approximations cost him a break while he was serving to win the game, 5 games to 1.
If he were to triumph on Spanish clay on May 5 – the day he will celebrate his 21st birthday – the double Grand Slam winner (US Open 2022 and Wimbledon 2023) and former world No.1 would become the first to win the Masters 1000 in Madrid three times in a row.