Barcelona [Spain], April 14 : Carlos Alcaraz bounced back strongly from his Monte Carlo final loss to Jannik Sinner, easing past Finland's Otto Virtanen 6-4, 6-3 on Tuesday to advance to the second round of the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell.
Currently ranked No. 2 in the ATP Rankings after surrendering the top spot to Sinner, the 22-year-old Spaniard has a chance to reclaim the World No. 1 position with a title-winning run in Barcelona. Alcaraz will next meet Tomas Machac after the Czech beat Sebastian Baez 2-6, 6-4, 6-1.
"It feels great to be back and to get another win in front of my people in Barcelona; it means everything. This morning was my first practice here to adapt to the conditions. Different conditions to Monte-Carlo, but overall I am really happy with the way that I played," Alcaraz said as per the ATP tour website.
Alcaraz has strong memories at the ATP 500 clay-court event, having lifted the title in 2022 and 2023. He also reached the final last year but fell short against Denmark's Holger Rune. Alcaraz is chasing his third title of the season this week after completing the Career Grand Slam at the Australian Open and triumphing at the ATP 500 event in Doha.
Alcaraz will be eager to return to winning ways in Barcelona this week after narrowly missing out against rival Jannik Sinner in the Monte Carlo final at the third ATP Masters 1000 event of the season.
Sinner improved to 7-10 in the pair's ATP Head2Head series following his second clay-court win against Alcaraz.
In other Day 2 action at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, second seed Lorenzo Musetti defeated Spanish wild card Martin Landaluce 7-5, 6-2 to register his first tour-level win since the Australian Open in January.
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