In a bid to complete a career Grand Slam, world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz battled back from a break down in a thrilling 78-minute opening set against Yannick Hanfmann, securing his second straight-sets victory at the Australian Open on Wednesday.
Match Highlights
The top seed faced a stern test from Hanfmann at Rod Laver Arena but emerged triumphant with a score of 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-2 after 2 hours and 44 minutes, claiming his second win this year in Melbourne.
Alcaraz played the longest first set of his career in the Slams, facing a 3-1 deficit. He saved two break points at 5-5 and later built a 4/3 lead in the tie-break before winning four consecutive points. The 34-year-old German aimed to become the first player outside the Top 100 of the ATP Rankings to defeat Alcaraz at a major.
Alcaraz expressed his thoughts: “Really, really happy that I got through a really difficult first set, and then I started to feel a little bit better on the court with my shots. Tactically I played much, much better, so I’m just happy to have played at a really good level at the end of the match and get through to another round.”
After facing three break points in his first two service games, Alcaraz did not allow another break chance until he fended off four in the final game of the match. He recorded 11 aces during his victory, including four in a row in his opening service game of the final set, as reported by ATP.
The 22-year-old is on the quest to become the youngest man in history to complete the career Grand Slam in singles and the youngest in the Open Era to win seven major singles titles.
Alcaraz is now two wins away from matching his best Australian Open result: quarterfinal runs in each of the past two years. His next opponent will either be qualifier Michael Zheng or 32nd seed Corentin Moutet in the third round.