Carlos Alcaraz admitted courtside, in a conversation with Tomás Carbonell, that he also “missed Barcelona.” According to the Murcian, it was very painful not to play there due to last year’s injury, which added a bit more sentimentality to a far from easy debut against Ethan Quinn. The American played without anything to lose, and Carlos acknowledged courtside the reasons for his difficulties in the second set, where, after taking an early break lead, he needed to save a set point in the tiebreak.
“The first matches of each tournament are never easy. I arrived yesterday and had a very short practice session: the conditions and everything are different… playing in Barcelona is very special, so sometimes it’s a bit challenging to manage the nerves at the beginning.
It seemed like I had it under control, I made some mistakes, and it was hard to maintain that level, but I’m happy to have overcome the minor issues in the second set and closed it out in two sets.” Next stop, Laslo Djere, Thursday at 4:00 p.m.
