Yannick Hanfmann has been confirmed as
Carlos Alcaraz's first opponent at the 2023 ATP
China Open, held from September 28 - October 8 at the National Tennis Center in Beijing.
The field at this year's ATP 500 tournament is stacked with talent, meaning that the World No. 53 had to go through qualifiers to make the main draw where he will face the top seed on Friday, September 29.
Alcaraz may have considered himself lucky to be facing a qualifier considering the fact that several other highly-ranked seeds are up against Top 20 players in their first-round matches. One example of this is second seed Daniil Medvedev, who is set to start his campaign against World No. 13 Tommy Paul.
Hanfmann could make trouble for Alcaraz
However, Hanfmann is not likely to be an easy opponent. The German player was unseeded in qualifying but ousted eighth seed Dusan Lajovic and third seed Miomir Kecmanovic in straight sets to set up his first-round clash with Alcaraz.
The 31-year-old began his professional career in 2015 and is an established top-100 ATP-ranked player, who plays with a two-handed backhand and is in one of the best positions of his career after hitting his career-high ranking of World No. 45 last July.
This will be the first meeting between Alcaraz and Hanfmann on the ATP Tour, so it will be interesting to see how their abilities match up at this level. They faced each other on the clay courts at the Copa Sevilla Challenger tournament back in 2019, where an up-and-coming Alcaraz defeated a ninth-seeded Hanfmann 7-6, 7-6 on the German's favorite surface.
This is an indication of how, despite the fact that Hanfmann has shown resilience and looks to be on good form, it will be a very difficult task for him to overcome the two-time Grand Slam champion.
