This was Alcaraz’s first round
Two weeks after falling to Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals of the Australia Open, Carlos Alcaraz returned to action with a victory in Rotterdam against the Dutch Botic Van de Zandschulp. The Spanish advanced to the round of 16 after imposing itself 7-6 (7/3), 3-6 and 6-1 in a duel that extended for two hours and 34 minutes.
Now, wait for the winner of the confrontation between Felix Auger-Aliassime and the Italian Andrea Vavassori. It should be noted that the Canadian is, so far, the only tennis player who has conquered two titles in 2025: Adelaida and Montpellier.
Van de Zandschulp, who has not yet added victories so far this year, complicated the match for Alcaraz from the first moment. He managed to stretch the first set for more than an hour and came to have the opportunity to close it with his service. However, the Murcian resisted and, despite a high number of united errors, managed to impose himself in the tiebreaker.
The second set followed a similar dynamic. The Dutch took the lead and took advantage of one of those occasional Alcaraz disconnections to take advantage. This time he did not miss the opportunity and took the manga, forcing a third set after almost two hours of intense battle.