Carlos Alcaraz hasn't played since the Australian Open, but he returned at the 2024 Argentina Open in Buenos Aires with a solid straight-sets win.
Alcaraz last played in Melbourne, where he was stunned by an inspired Alexander Zverev. We didn't know when he'd be back on the courts, but we knew he wouldn't play indoors in Europe.
That type of court isn't his favorite, and he signed up to defend his trophy in Buenos Aires. This event was the first one he played last year after the long injury pause, and he won it, so returning to the ATP 250 event made sense.
It's also a type of court she prefers to play on, and it was obvious immediately. Despite being inactive for some time, Alcaraz looked as good as ever, besting Camilo Ugo Carabelli, who is a local player, easily 6-2.
He didn't really serve well in the opening set but overwhelmingly dominated in rallies, so it didn't really matter. Ugo Carabelli is a solid player, but he's mostly an ATP Challenger-level player who doesn't even have a lot of ATP Tour experience.
His second serve was an immediate target for the Spaniard, who dominated in those situations, creating a lot of chances that he used. The second set opened badly for Alcaraz as he dropped his serve immediately, which has been happening a lot lately.
He has these odd swings during matches, which he didn't really have earlier in his career. He would snap back rather quickly to break back and then further outplay his opponent to take a 5-2 lead.
Despite seemingly cruising to a simple two-set victory at 6-2, 5-2, and having multiple match points, the home player was able to make the match dramatic. He levelled the score to 5-5, and even had three break points at 0-40 in the eleventh game.
But an improved serve from the two-time Grand Slam winner, and a few mistakes from the Argentinian got Alcaraz back into play, and he was able to win the match 6-2, 7-5 and reach the quarterfinals of the tournament.
He didn't really serve well, and he was quite vulnerable on his second serve, which he'll have to fix moving forward. Not winning the trophy in Buenos Aires wouldn't be a disaster, but it would be quite surprising as none of the players at the event are even remotely close to his level.
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