Carlos Alcaraz will face the Portuguese Nuno Borges this Tuesday, in his debut at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell-Trofeo Conde de Godó. The Portuguese reaches the second round after beating the Belarusian Ilya Ivashka (6-2, 6-3) on Monday in one hour and 25 minutes of the match.
The victory of Borges, 79th player in the ATP ranking, has as a reward being able to face Alcaraz, defending champion in Barcelona. A duel that will be played on the Rafael Nadal track of the RCT Barcelona-1899.
It will be the first time that Borges, 26, faces the Murcian tennis player, who at 19 is currently the second player in the world ranking, by giving up first place in the ranking after losing in the semifinals of the Master 1000 in Miami against him. Italian Sinner.
Alcaraz defends title in Barcelona. "Barcelona is a place where I love to play, my family and friends are going to come to see me and I'm just going to go out and enjoy myself and try to avoid that pressure to defend the title," explained the Murcian from the RCT Barcelona press room. 1899.
The Spaniard has not played the Monte Carlo Masters 1,000 to recover from two small physical setbacks: post-traumatic arthritis in his left hand and muscular discomfort in the spine.
Now that he has recovered, he resumes contact with the competition on clay in the Catalan capital: "There are still a few days left to prepare, but I have had two training sessions here with Shapovalov and Casper (Ruud) and the truth is that they have been very good for me" .
In this edition, Alcaraz arrives without the necessary shooting on clay, although yes, with the title of Buenos Aires in the South American tour on clay a few months ago: "I have to pick up the competition rhythm, but confidence on clay I have and I'm going to use it to play as well as possible".
The path to revalidate the title has been paved with the last-minute losses of the twelve-time tournament champion, the Spanish Rafael Nadal, and the number 5 in the world ranking, the Russian Daniil Medvedev.
The match between Carlos Alcaraz and Nuno Borges of the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell-Conde de Godó Trophy will take place this Tuesday, April 18, on the Rafael Nadal court of the RCT Barcelona-1899, around 3:00 p.m. The meeting can be seen on RTVE television and can also be followed live on the La Vanguardia website.
