Immediately after his maiden Grand Slam triumph, Carlos Alcaraz flew to Valencia to help his country in the 2022 Davis Cup group stages.
In the first tie against Serbia, the 19-years-old Spaniard didn't play and his country easily triumphed 3-0 and got the top spot in Group B. Only two days later, Spain took on Canada and after Roberto Bautista Agut defeated Vasek Pospisil, the home country led 1-0 and needed only one more point to win another tie and secure their spot in the finals.
New world number 1 in the ATP Rankings, Carlos Alcaraz was the man that was supposed to get the win for Spain as he was nominated for his first match of the group stages. He took on Canadian no. 1, Felix Auger-Aliassime who wanted to keep his country in play for the important point.
In the first set, both players played really good tennis on their serve and so fans in Valencia didn't see any break points until the twelfth game when the Canadian had a chance to win the first set. However, he didn't use it and despite hitting 14 winners compared to three of Alcaraz, he lost the first set in the tie-break, 3-7.
It was the home-crowd favourite who had the first break point of the second set. Yet, the Spaniard didn't use his chance and three games later, he got broken and eventually lost the set 4-6.
Auger-Aliassime showed his qualities in the third set when he kept hitting winners while avoiding unforced errors and also got two early breaks. to go up 5-1. On the other hand, Alcaraz didn't sue any of the 7 break points he had and so the Canadian eventually won the match and beat world number 1, 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-2.
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