Carlos Alcaraz was in a situation where he didn't know about his first-round opponent at the 2023 China Open in Beijing, but that has now changed.
After the draw for the 2023 China Open has been made, we found out about multiple first-round blockbusters, such as the one between Holger Rune and Felix Auger-Aliassime, but the ATP 500 draw gave Carlos Alcaraz one of the qualifiers.
That meant that Alcaraz, who recently extended his calendar with an exhibition event, needed to wait for the conclusion of the qualifying at the event, to find out who will he play against in the first round of the tournament, which will mark his debut in China.
The first-round opponents could range from Matteo Arnaldi, who he beat at the US Open, to the likes of Lloyd Harris and J.J. Wolf. But in the end, Alcaraz's first-round opponent will be Germany's Yannick Hanfmann who caused two upsets in the qualifying.
First, the German player defeated the eighth-seeded Dusan Lajovic from Serbia in the first round, and in the next round, he outplayed Lajovic's compatriot, Miomir Kecmanovic, winning both matches without dropping a set.
Now, Hanfmann will face the biggest possible challenge at the tournament, taking on the first-seeded Alcaraz, whom he never met on the ATP Tour before. Although, the German is more experienced in terms of his age, the 20-year-old Spaniard certainly has more experience with playing big matches, despite his young age.
He will put that experience to the test against Hanfmann. The German managed to beat the likes of Stefanos Tsitsipas, Andrey Rublev, Taylor Fritz, and many other players this year, meaning that the world no. 2 certainly won't underestimate the meeting with Hanfmann, especially after he cruised through the qualifying.
The winner of this match will face another challenging matchup in the second round, taking on either Lorenzo Musetti, or Karen Khachanov, who is coming from Zhuhai where he won his first title since 2018.
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