Carlos Alcaraz has become the first player born in 2003 to win a Grand Slam qualification match.
The Spaniard who burst onto the scene a year ago at the age of 16. On debut in Rio de Janeiro he put on some stunning clay court tennis including a 7-6 4-6 7-6 win against Albert Ramos Vinolas in 3 hours 36 minutes.
Despite the difficulties of last season the Spaniard who is coached by former world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero won back to back Challenger titles in Spain and finished his season winning five singles titles accross ITF and ATP Challenger level.
The good form last year did see Alcaraz climb to a career high of 136 so far in his short career which meant a chance in qualifying for a major.
Carlos has plans to head to Melbourne in a couple of days time and he has done his chances now harm a few thousand miles away in Doha where men’s Australian Open qualifying is taking place.
It was a tough start for the 21st seed who fell down 5-7 to Filip Horansky but went onto dominate the second set 6-1 and battled hard in the third to win 6-4 serving out a first win.
Next up for the teenager will be Evgeny Karlovskiy but will have a day off tomorrow. I imagine he will also have an eye on those potential opponents in the third round which does include Ruben Bemelmans and second seed in qualifying Hugo Dellien.
Elsewhere in qualifying, teenager Lorenzo Musetti was a surprise exit. Great Britains Jay Clarke also fell as did the surprising second seed in the women’s draw Oceane Dodin but the experienced Sara Errani, Timea Babos and Tsvetana Pironkova all won.
Leave a Reply