Carlos Alcaraz might be dealing with an injury, but you'd never guess that if you watched his performance against Matteo Arnaldi.
Arnaldi has been quite spectacular at this year's US Open, putting together some amazing performances to get this far. His reward was a chance to play Carlos Alcaraz at Arthur Ashe Stadium, which is a pretty nice thing. Obviously, he knew that it wouldn't be the nicest thing considering who was across the net, but still, he gave his best.
It was a decent effort though not enough for Alcaraz, who played an amazing match. There were some question marks about that considering that he might be dealing with an injury. He took pills in the last match which many assume were painkillers.
He skipped practice yesterday and appeared today with his leg wrapped, which indicates discomfort at the very least. His movement wasn't that much hampered, and he played really well, so it seems like he's managing it for now.
The opening set was an interesting one because Arnaldi outplayed Alcaraz, but only in the stat columns. He served better and had more winners and fewer errors, but Alcaraz spread it out better and took the set 6-3. The second one ended with an early break for Alcaraz as well.
Arnaldi kept pushing, but he never quite got it right, and Alcaraz being far more precise in the second one compared to the first one certainly didn't help. The Spaniard won the second set as well but fell behind early in the 3rd set.
Despite being a break down, Alcaraz took no time to break back and from there, it was a rather simple journey towards the finish line. The final score was 6-3 6-3 6-4 for Alcaraz, who had 31 winners and 22 unforced errors. It's a decent win for one of the favourites.
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