Alcaraz is convincing on the way to his possible matchup with Djokovic

As expected, without Rafa Nadal and so many who hope to win this new edition in Paris, this first week of Roland Garros leaves us tied in most of the matches of the first round, in which a large part of them ran all five sets.

As another point to be made, poor Spanish play. Absent Rafa, Carreño and Badosa, only Davidovich, who played a great match against Djokovic in the third round, and the expected presence of Alcaraz in the round of 16, together with Sara Sorribes in the women’s competition, leave bad statistics for Spanish tennis, the most negative in 33 years.

In worse circumstances is French tennis, which was left without a national team in the second round despite the reprehensible behavior of the public, especially in the match between Rinderknech and Fritz. The only satisfaction for the French public was provided by Monfils, who, after an injury and undefeated in a single game this year, despite the cramps came back from 4-0 in the fifth set and finally defeated Báez in the delirium of the fans.

On the contrary, Italian tennis, despite Berrettini’s defeat, continues to achieve good results thanks to the excellent work of the association of that transalpine country.

The third feature is characterized by the early removal of seeds. Medved (2nd) and Alliasime (10th) fell first. Canadian, against veteran Fognini in three sets; and the Russian, who, though not a land expert, had just won at Rome, fell to the unknown Seyboth (172).

Subsequently, the players who should have reached the second week like Sinner and Rublev, and the rest of the lower ranks like Bautista, De Miñaur, Paul, Evans, Norrie, Struff… While, on the contrary, the players from the worst rank like the Peruvian Varillas ( 94th), Argentinian Etcheberry (49th), Chilean Jarry (35th) or Japanese Nishioka. Thus, the expected and unexpected eliminations of Medvedev and Aliassime from the tournament leave a quadrant in which there are many contenders for a place in the quarterfinals.

Alcaraz Road

The three games Murcian played until the round of 16 were played at a more than acceptable level. In his debut against the Italian Coboli, he had problems only in the third set. Against Tar Daniel, a Japanese trained at the Levantine Altur school, he surrendered a set, although he convincingly won the rest, and against Shapovalov he repeated the first set, as in the previous matches, of total dominance, only to then have to come back with 4-1 in the fourth and finish clearly in the third. The Spaniard plays at a good level, with his high background rhythm and his variations of drop shots and volleys, however, he usually has drops that he recovers later, with confidence, but against opponents he has to face, you will have to be careful not to have them, because you won’t have them easy to recover.

His next opponent is one of his direct rivals who will dominate world tennis in the coming years: 21-year-old Lorenzo Musetti, Carlos’ opponent many times in the lower categories, and who beat him in their only match on the professional circuit (Hamburg), and you know but what it’s like to play the fourth round of Roland Garros. The Italian has great talent, and as he himself admits, he lacked the regularity and maturity to compete in the order with Alcaraz, Ruud and Rune, but he has the potential to be part of the world’s elite.

Lorenzo will be the first big test that the current world number 1 will have to overcome in the highly anticipated match. If he wins the Italian, it would be logical to play against Tsitsipas, whom he took the measure of, and in the semi-finals it would be normal to face Djokovic in the early final.

In short, a part of the draw in which Djokovic and the winner of Alcaraz-Musetti probably choose, and others with Ruud and Rune as the main favorites, but with which Nishioka, Jarry, Etcheberry, and the winners of the clash between Tiafoe and Zverev, Altmaier and Dimitrov, and Cerundolo with Fritz. As we pointed out at the beginning of the tournament, many registered. This shows that Rafa is not there. We’ll see if Carlos Alcaraz can take over.