On his return to Buenos Aires after a year and on his return to clay, which in 2023 only saw him defeated three times in 28 matches, Carlos Alcaraz renewed his love affair with the Buenos Aires public in his presentation at the ATP 250 in Buenos Aires. Aires.
Although the people vibrated with the effort and tennis displayed by Camilo Ugo Carabelli, the Spaniard left with applause, smiles and with the certainty that in the tournament in which he will seek to defend the title he will have a very, very good time.
The debut of the Murcian was with a 6-2, 7-5 victory and there was no room for surprises or, rather, the big blow that the elimination of the top favorite would have meant.
But beyond the fact that victory was not at risk, what remains to be highlighted is the very good performance of Ugo Carabelli who, in his second match against a top ten - he lost to the Canadian Felix Auger Aliassime, then ninth in the world, at Roland Garros 2022-, showed the aptitude to sooner or later get among the 100 best tennis players in the world.
What was the difference?
Ugo Carabelli pointed it out at the press conference when he said that "Alcaraz has crack things."
And where is there a point that marks the star status of the former world number 1?
In his drive, for example.
Inverted or on the run, it is a blow that hurts anyone.
And the loser who, in any case, was able to enjoy a dream night in Buenos Aires suffered it.
After an irregular start in which they broke each other twice, Alcaraz established the logical difference and with the power of his blows he overwhelmed his opponent who was never able to hold serve in the first set.
In the second, the irregularity continued: Ugo Carabelli led 2-0, but Alcaraz was soon 5-2.
He did not close it with his serve at 5-3 and even wasted a match point at 5-4 with the serve of his rival who, on his side, had three break points in the next game.
But when the winner was 6-5, he did not forgive and ended up celebrating for his team a victory that will allow him this Friday, at the opening of the night session, not before 6:30 p.m., to seek another step in the tournament against the Italian Andrea Vavassori.
It will ultimately be another chapter in a romance that began 12 months ago.
Triumph of Federico Coria
Federico Coria hit one of the great blows this Thursday at the ATP in Buenos Aires.
The 106th in the world and younger brother of the legendary Mago, he beat the British Cameron Norrie 6-2, 4-6 and 6-3 and advanced to the quarterfinals of the tournament that has the Spanish Alcaraz as a big favorite.
Fefo needed two hours and 20 minutes to take out Norrie, who was in the top ten and today is 20th in the world.
He kept the first set, then gave up the second, but gave a show of authority in the last chapter to remove one of the last finalists from the contest.
It is the fourth victory over a top 20 in his career for Coria, who advances for the second time to the quarterfinals of the tournament played at the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis.
Previously, he had won against the Spanish Pablo Carreño Busta (Lyon 2022) and the Chilean Cristian Garín twice (Bastad 2021 and Rio 2022).
It is also a great February for Fefo, since last week he had been a semi-finalist at the ATP in Córdoba.
"It was the best victory of my career. Beating Cameron who was Top 10 not long ago and doing it here in Buenos Aires deserves me to consider it," said Coria, who could not erase the smile from his face, at the press conference and now awaits the winner of the duel between Sebastián Báez and Luciano Darderi, who are in charge of closing the day in Palermo.