After four months out due to injury, Carlos Alcaraz made a winning return to the court on Wednesday, beating Serbian Laslo Djere to advance to the quarter-finals of the Argentine Open in Buenos Aires.
Although the 19-year-old Spaniard showed a slight lack of mental preparation by battling two hours on the Guillermo Vilas court, he ended up winning 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 against Djere, 57th in the world.
World No. 2 Alcaraz, who will face another Serbian, Dusan Lajovic, in the quarter-finals, said he was relieved to have secured his first win of 2023.
"
It's a great feeling to win again
"
"
It's a great feeling to win again
," the defending US Open champion said after the match.
“
It has been a long period without competition and without a match, just recovery, finally I got my first victory of 2023
”, he rejoiced.
“
I didn't expect such a good atmosphere behind me.
So a thank you to all the fans here, I hope I can continue with this energy.
»
Prior to Wednesday, Alcaraz had not played since a muscle tear in his leg suffered at the Paris Masters in November, which caused him to miss the start of the 2023 season, including the Australian Open.
Against Djere, he started softly after taking the first set quickly but failed to take advantage of multiple opportunities to break his opponent in the second.
Instead, Djere took advantage of Alcaraz's see-saw play to equalize and take it to a third set.
But Alcaraz reacted decisively, breaking in the opener, then breaking again to lead 5-2 before serving for the match.
His quarter-final opponent Lajovic qualified earlier on Wednesday with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Argentina's Camilo Ugo.
On the other side of the table, the British No.2 seed Cameron Norrie reached the quarter-finals by beating the Argentinian Facundo Diaz 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (8/6).
Norrie will face Tomas Etcheverry in the quarter-finals after the Argentinian's victory over Spaniard Roberto Carballes Baena (4-6, 6-1, 6-2).