It was business as usual for Carlos Alcaraz as he had no problems in his first-round victory at the French Open. Alcaraz was not certain that he was going to play at Roland Garros because of a forearm injury that had been bugging him for a while.
The Spaniard’s 2024 season has not been free of injury as he had an ankle injury at the start of the Rio Open which forced him to retire after just two games into his first-round match. Alcaraz bounced back though and ended up winning the Indian Wells tournament just a couple weeks later.
The 21-year-old defeated unranked American J.J. Wolf 6-1, 6-2, 6-1 in the opening round of the French Open. Carlos Alcaraz served five aces in the match and won 69% of his first serve points.
Succeeding Despite Injury
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Speaking on his ongoing forearm issue, Alcaraz joked,
“Well, I think you’re not going to believe me, but I don’t know exactly what I have on the forearm.”
Despite the injury, it didn’t seem to affect him very much as he handily won in straight sets. After his early withdrawal from the Rio Open, Alcaraz missed clay court tournaments in Monte Carlo and Barcelona. These are the warmup tournaments on clay in preparation for the French Open.
Before playing in Paris, Alcaraz shared what he was doing to keep himself comfortable while playing,
“I’m better. The training has gone quite well and without any discomfort. However, I still wear the compression bandage, I am training with it and I am going to play with it, that is clear to me.”
Carlos Alcaraz is feeling more ready to go for the French Open than he had been a little over a month ago.
Stats Breakdown
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In this first-round match at the French Open, Carlos Alcaraz made 72% of his first serves. J.J. Wolf made just 58%. It’s tough to win any professional match when you struggle to put your first serve in. When you’re regularly hitting second serves, your opponent has a better chance to attack that serve and be the aggressor in the point. They can take over almost instantly.
Wolf won less than half his points on his first serve at 45%, not capitalizing on it. He won an even worse percentage of his second serve points at 30%. It was a big difference for Alcaraz as he won 72% on his second serve. The Spaniard won more points on his second serve than his first, weirdly.
The key to the match was the breakpoints. Carlos Alcaraz capitalized on those and won nine out of fifteen break point chances. This helped in contributing to the lopsided final score. Wolf only had seven break-point chances and won just two of them.
Alcaraz didn’t just control the serving points; he controlled the receiving points as well, winning 41 to Wolf’s 21. It was an all-around domination by the world No.3. But it’s not surprising that we saw this against an unranked player who has a losing record of 44-50 in his career and no titles.
Alcaraz’s French Open Chances
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As always, if Carlos Alcaraz is out there and at 50% or more, he has a good chance of winning the whole thing. He does have a lot of competition, though, in this year’s French Open.
We will see exactly how healthy Alcaraz is as we go into the later rounds of the tournament. However, if he continues to play at the level we’ve been accustomed to seeing him play, he will be a tough out. His combination of top-notch powerful groundstrokes, fantastic on-court movement, and blazing serve make him one of the most electric and successful players today.
Carlos Alcaraz is going to have a target on his back in the French Open, though, due to his rampant success and dominance over the past two years. Players like Daniil Medvedev are going to be tough for Alcaraz because of his great consistency and equally effective serve.
The fact that Medvedev has also been in many important matches in majors could give the Spanish phenom a run for his money. Daniil Medvedev can go almost pound for pound with Carlos Alcaraz. In 2023, Alcaraz won six titles and Medvedev was right behind him with five.
And, of course, we can’t forget about 24-time Grand Slam-winning player N0vak Djokovic. Djokovic is an incredibly hard out in any tournament because of how consistent and solid he is. Djokovic has also won the French Open three times, so he knows how to win here. He also rarely seems to get rattled.
In addition, you won’t find a player who is in much better shape than Novak Djokovic. He is like the Tom Brady of tennis and he has the titles to back it up too.
Alcaraz’s career head-to-head record with Djokovic is tight. Djokovic leads the series 3-2. A match between them could go either way. If they play each other in the French Open, it will be primetime tennis with many eyeballs on it.
Carlos Alcaraz’s next match in the French Open will be against Dutch player Jesper De Jong on Wednesday.
About The Author
Cooper Sherman is an avid NFL fan and enjoys watching and covering it the most. The NFL is king. He previously wrote and was a podcaster for the online publications Pro Sports Fanatics and Jersey Column. He is also an NBA fan and watches it occasionally, more when the NFL season ends. Tennis is also an underrated sport to watch. His teams are the Patriots and Celtics, as tough as it is to be a Patriots fan right now. He is optimistic that Jerod Mayo will turn this team in the right direction! Follow him on Instagram and Threads @coopstershermy456, and X/Twitter @justcoopthings.
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