Carlos Alcaraz started his French Open campaign with a statement win over Flaivo Cobolli as he dropped just seven games. The top seed sent a message to the rest of the field as he survived a blip in the third set to advance 6-0 6-2 7-5 in an hour and 57 minutes.
Alcaraz was playing as the top seed at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time as he made his debut on the Suzanne Lenglen court in Paris. The world No 1 hadn’t played a Major tournament since winning the US Open last September and faced a qualifier in Cobolli.
The pair had met once before – three years ago in the qualifying event at the Todi Challenger when Alcaraz was ranked down at No 318. It was the Spaniard who won in straight sets and – now a world No 1 and Slam champion – he got off to another quick start over the Italian.
Alcaraz raced to take the opening set 6-0 in just 24 minutes, dropping three points on serve. And he continued his brutal attack on the world No 159’s serve, breaking to love to start set number two.
Cobolli finally got on the board at 1-2 in the second set, ending the top seed’s run of games at eight. The Lenglen crowd erupted in support for the qualifier, who had a smile plastered across his face as he finally won a game against Alcaraz.
The 21-year-old got another game under his belt but the Spaniard continued to work his magic, sprinkling in some of his signature drop shots to get another break en route to taking the second set 6-2. Cobolli started to grow in confidence as he held in his first two games of the third set to go 2-1 up – his first time leading in any set.
The qualifier set up his first two break points of the match but Alcaraz was quick to save them and draw level before going up a break himself. Cobolli continued to fend off Alcaraz, saving triple match point on his own serve and then breaking with Spaniard serving for the match.
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