Carlos Alcaraz, number one in the world, made his debut this Tuesday at the Masters 1,000 in Cincinnati (Ohio) with a lackluster victory and with more suffering than expected against Australian Jordan Thompson. Alcaraz, who had never faced the Australian before, won 7-5, 4-6 and 6-3 in three hours and two minutes in this long and demanding round of 32 match that ended after one in the morning of Cincinnati and which was interrupted by rain.
The Spaniard will face the winner of the match between the Frenchman Ugo Humbert and the American Tommy Paul, who eliminated him last Friday in the quarterfinals of the Masters 1,000 in Toronto.
Alcaraz left signs in Toronto that he still has work ahead of him to recover his best level after a few weeks of well-deserved rest after winning at Queen's and his historic triumph at Wimbledon.
After passing through Canadian lands, the Murcian has to refine his set-up on hard courts in Cincinnati since in a couple of weeks the defense of the United States Open that he won last year will begin in New York.
In his match against Thompson, Alcaraz, although he took the first set, was not fine in a first set in which he had 12 'break' balls but could only define two of them. Things were worse in the second set when Thompson, number 55 in the world, showed that he was not going to give up and put Alcaraz in trouble, breaking his serve and going 2-4.
It seemed that the man from El Palmar straightened the course by signing a 'break' when his rival served to seal the set (4-5), but just after Alcaraz conceded another break and Thompson scored the set from the rest (4-6) .
Already in the third set, Alcaraz began with conviction, breaking his opponent's serve in the first game, strengthening his serve and leaving no room for more surprises until closing the match with a new 'break'.
