Tough initial test for Carlos Alcaraz at Wimbledon passed with flying colours

Carlos Alcaraz has qualified for the second round of Wimbledon 2024 after beating Mark Lajal in a duel in which the defending champion went from strength to strength to end up overwhelming his opponent and defeating him in three sets by 7-6/7-5/6-2.

The first set was very even and the Estonian played at a very high level taking the duel to a tiebreak. Alcaraz felt the days of inactivity after having fallen in the second round of Queen's this year and found it hard to adapt to the measures of the Central of the All England Club. But also Lajal came in with a chip on his shoulder balking at the Route to the Final graphic posted about Alcaraz albeit they are available for every player.

Thus, there was an exchange of breaks in the beginning of the duel but everything was decided in a tie break in which the current world number 3 took his greater experience to get 1-0 in the partial score of the clash.

The dynamic in the second set remained the same, with both players holding their respective serves in a classic match on grass, one of those that have always been played at Wimbledon: serves prevailing over the remainders and very few opportunities when the opponent is on serve.

However, again at the moment of truth, Carlitos returned to give a blow, warning his rivals that he has returned to land at Wimbledon to try to win. At 5-5 he squeezed his opponent, broke him and closed the set with his serve (7-5).

In the last set Alcaraz stopped fooling around, broke from the start and made it clear that he had definitely taken over the court. He took a 2-0 lead and Lajal had no chance to respond to a far superior opponent in the final stretch of the last two sets. In fact, he broke his opponent's serve again and at 4-1 left the duel sentenced. He ended up closing the match by 7-6/7-5/6-2.

In the second round Carlitos will face the winner of Aleksandar Vukic vs. Sebastian Ofner. He is still dreaming of becoming the fourth man to win 4 Grand Slams in the Open Era under 21 years old.