Paris — In his quest for Olympic gold, Carlos Alcaraz of Spain defeated Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands 6-1 7-6(3) on Monday to advance to the third round of the Paris Games tennis competition.
Settling the tone with an ace and two forehand winners right away, the world number three, who won the French Open and Wimbledon this year, returned to Court Philippe-Chatrier.
After watching Rafael Nadal, another Spaniard, lose to Novak Djokovic, the crowd was clearly ready for Alcaraz to step up to the plate at Roland Garros. He broke Griekspoor right away and won the opening set in 32 minutes.
However, in the second set, the Dutchman—who is currently ranked 28 in the world—performed better. Under pressure, Griekspoor held his serve time and time again, returning as much as Alcaraz threw at him and occasionally driving the Spaniard into some uncharacteristic mistakes.
In order to receive medical attention from a trainer for a groin muscle problem during the second set, Alcaraz required a timeout. In a tiebreaker, he was one point away from going to a third set, but he prevailed.
“I’ve been experiencing pain,” Alcaraz remarked, adding that it was a concern for him during his ascent to the Wimbledon title this month. “I know what I have to do … to deal with this pain.”
Alcaraz will face world number 67 Roman Safiullin, a Russian competing as a neutral athlete, in the singles third round. Tuesday’s doubles match between Alcaraz and Nadal is slated to take place against Griekspoor and Wesley Koolhof.
“I will try to recover as soon and as (best) as I can tonight,” said Alcaraz, “to be … 100% tomorrow in my doubles.”