Carlos Alcaraz had no issues against Daniel Evans in the past, and that was the case also at the 2023 US Open.
Alcaraz is blazing through the US Open draw, which isn't a huge surprise. Emulating Nadal's sleeveless outfit, Alcaraz wants to do what Nadal did back in 2019 - win the event. He won it last year, so he knows how to do it, but this year features Novak Djokovic in the draw.
That wasn't the case last year, and it makes all the difference. We saw the Serbian beat Alcaraz recently in Cincinnati, so he could clearly do it again. In any case, both have still a few matches to go before we get that one.
One of those was this one against Dan Evans, and it went pretty smoothly. The Spaniard opened the match with an early break and then added another 4-0. He pulled back the aggression a bit but still won the set 6-2 as Evans wasted break points.
The Brit did get a break early in the second set, taking a 2-0 lead, but it didn't last long. Despite struggling with Evans's tricks, Alcaraz quickly figured things out levelling the score. From there he kept pushing and eventually got another break to take a 5-3 lead. He broke once more for the 6-3 final score.
The shot-making by Alcaraz proved the difference because he had ten more winners in the opening set. He had three more winners in the second set, but Evans helped him by missing a lot after upping his aggression to counter the power of Alcaraz.
Evans would surprisingly win the 3rd set thanks to some impeccable play, but Alcaraz would secure the win in the 4th set. It was a good match overall from both, but ultimately, a bit too strong from Alcaraz. The final score was 6-2, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 for the Spaniard.
With his victory, the 20-year-old made it to the second week of the last Grand Slam of the season once again, and also, he also avoided a seeded opponent in the next round. The 16th-seeded Cameron Norrie, who is one of the very few players who beat him this year, was projected to meet the top seed, but the Brit lost to Matteo Arnaldi in his third-round match.
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