Carlos Alcaraz advanced to the third round of the 2023 Roland Garros but it wasn't a smooth sailing for him.
After beating Flavio Cobolli in the first round of the tournament, the 20-year-old certainly felt good. He admitted that at times, he felt invincible against his Italian opponent and he may have experienced the same feelings also against Taro Daniel from Japan in his second-round match.
But the feelings were probably mixed for the Spaniard. It was their first meeting on the ATP Tour, and it started really well for Alcaraz who got two breaks in the first set, dominating the set and winning it 6-1.
Yet, the slump came in the second set of the match. Alcaraz wasn't able to counter his opponent's early break that came already in the second game. He had one chance to break back, but after he failed to use that, nothing stopped Daniel from winning the second set 6-3.
The Japanese player certainly felt that he had a chance against a player that was named the greatest player at 20 by John McEnroe. But Alcaraz soon put an end to those feelings, as he dominated in the third set of the match.
The Spaniard had four break points in the third set and he used two of those to win the second set 6-1 and steal the momentum once again. He managed to take advantage of that momentum also in the fourth set.
He won the fourth set 6-2 after breaking his opponent three times and after two hours and 27 minutes, Alcaraz won the match 6-1, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 to reach the third round of the 2023 Roland Garros.
Up next he will face a difficult challenge in 26th-seeded Denis Shapovalov who had to play already nine sets to get into the third round of the competition.
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