Carlos Alcaraz came back from a 6-2 deficit in the first-set tiebreaker and eventually sprinted past Matteo Arnaldi 7-6(6), 6-1 in round two of the Japan Open on Saturday afternoon. Alcaraz booked his spot in the quarterfinals after one hour and 45 minutes of play.
Serving at 6-2 in the ‘breaker, Arnaldi got tight on a backhand. Alcaraz took care of his next two service points, putting pressure on the underdog Italian at 6-5. Arnaldi erred on a first serve, lost a long rally to bring his opponent back on level terms at 6-6, and never recovered. Alcaraz won a brilliant point with a high backhand volley for 7-6 and converted his first set point when Arnaldi sent a forehand just over the baseline.
“When you are down in a tiebreak, you are thinking about doing something different,” the top-seeded Spaniard explained. “Then you are trying to be better in the second set…. I just tried to stay there, point after point. I changed how I played until that moment and it worked out. (I’m) just happy that I got that first set. Matteo was playing great.”
Denis Shapovalov and Adolfo Daniel Vallejo also advanced on Saturday. Alcaraz and Shapovalov will square off in the quarterfinals, while Vallejo awaits either Jiri Lehecka or Ugo Humbert.
At the China Open, Alex de Minaur and Andrey Rublev advanced to the last eight and will go head-to-head on Sunday. Rublev defeated fellow Russian Roman Safiullin 6-2, 3-6, 6-4. Beijing’s quarterfinal lineup also includes Novak Djokovic, Karen Khachanov, and Hubert Hurkacz.
nice one, Carlos
He was brilliant
Surprised Arnaldi gave him any trouble
Alcataz was appalling and lucky to win. At one point, was winning 4% on 2nd serves.
He was I watched it Arnaldi choked in that first set
Alcaraz was brilliant in that second set though, but Arnaldi capitulated
Arnaldi was cooked after not closing set one