Carlos Alcaraz battles past Nishioka in Paris

Carlos Alcaraz played a very sturdy match to fight past a feisty Nishioka in straight sets 6-4 6-4 moving on in Paris.

The world number one was thinking about pulling out of the event due to some knee pain he felt in Basel the previous week but the test came back normal and he opted to play. He did play with some tape on the knee so there might be some discomfort there although it was not visible in this match.

It was not a spectacular performance by Alcaraz but it was one that did the job of moving him to the next round and that his where he is going. He broke Nishioka midway through the first set to take a 4-2 lead but gave it right back to make it 4-4.

He broke him once more to make it 6-4 and finish off the set. The second set was largely similar as Nishioka held his own rather well against Alcaraz but eventually, the Spaniard simply took over. Once he finally broke his opponent he finished it off 6-4.

A solid effort with 30 winners and 9 aces to move on to round 3.