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Carlos Alcaraz comfortably maintained his record of never losing in the first round of a Grand Slam by taming J.J. Wolf at the French Open yesterday.
Alcaraz, 21, who made the semifinals in 2023 where he was defeated by Novak Djokovic, took his first round record at the majors to 13-0.
The Spaniard next faces either Britain’s Jack Draper or Dutch qualifier Jesper de Jong.
Alcaraz showed no sign of suffering from the right arm injury which sidelined him from the Rome Open as he coasted to victory on the back of 27 winners and nine breaks of serve.
Wolf arrived in Paris with just one win on tour all year but he surprised Alcaraz by breaking in the first game.
However, that was as good as it got for the 25-year-old as Alcaraz swept the next eight games, setting the tone for the match, before the American managed to hold serve for the first time in the third game of the second set.
Even closing the roof at the end of the second set was of no help to the hapless Wolf who has still to defeat a top-10 player in his career.
Meanwhile, Naomi Osaka swept to her first victory at the French Open in three years yesterday, setting up a potential showdown with world No 1 Iga Swiatek, as Roland Garros prepared to possibly bid farewell to Rafael Nadal.
Osaka, a four-time major winner who has yet to get past the third round in Paris, needed three sets to defeat Italy’s 48th-ranked Lucia Bronzetti on the showpiece Court Philippe Chatrier, 6-1, 4-6, 7-5.
The 26-year-old fired 31 winners, including six aces, and 45 unforced errors in a match where she gave up a 4-0 lead in the decider before finding herself 5-4 down.
However, she rallied strongly to register her first win at a Grand Slam since the 2022 Australian Open.
“It feels really nice to be back and I’m just really grateful to be here in front of everybody,” said Osaka.
“I think there were moments when I played really well.”
Nadal, who will be 38 on June 3, revealed Saturday that he hasn’t committed himself to retiring and wanted to “100 per cent keep the door open”. He missed the tournament in 2023 with injury.
His 2024 appearance may be brief after he was drawn to face fourth-ranked Alexander Zverev today.
“It’s a big, big chance that this is going to be my last Roland Garros, but if I have to tell you it’s 100 per cent my last Roland Garros, sorry, but I will not. I cannot predict what’s going on,” Nadal said.
The Spanish legend has racked up 112 wins in 115 matches at the tournament since his title-winning 2005 debut when he was just 19. He has 22 Grand Slam titles — second only to Djokovic’s 24 on the all-time men’s list — but his career has been plagued by injuries.
Nadal has played just four tournaments since January last year after suffering a hip injury and then a muscle tear.
As a result, his ranking has slumped to 275 in the world and he comes into the French Open unseeded — SuperSport.
Online Reporter