Carlos Alcaraz Overcomes Minor Struggles To Beat Alexei Popyrin In Melbourne
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Carlos Alcaraz will enter the 2025 Australian Open as a winner, as he ended his preparations with a win over Alexei Popyrin.
The young Spaniard was one of only three Top 60 ATP players who voluntarily chose not to compete in any warm-up tournaments ahead of the 2025 Australian Open. Two more, Jack Draper and Tallon Griekspoor, also missed out on the action, but they were injured.
Daniil Medvedev was probably the last player to arrive in Australia, as he welcomed his second child, so he also missed all of the warm-up action. Jannik Sinner and Alcaraz, on the other hand, chose to compete in a couple of exhibition matches to compensate for the lack of on-court action.
The first match went well for Sinner, as he beat Popyrin, but it didn't go so well for Alcaraz. He was playing well early on against Alex de Minaur until he started massively struggling, eventually losing the match in three sets.
In his second and last exhibition charity match ahead of the first major of the new season, the 21-year-old wanted to return to winning ways. His opponent was Popyrin, who lost to Sinner, and he also lost both of his matches at the Red Bull Bassline event.
The Australian had a good start to the match. He held in his first service game, and after that, he led 30-15 on Alcaraz's game, coming two points away from an early break. But that didn't happen, as the Spaniard won three points in a row to hold his serve.
He then added to those three points, winning two points on Popyrin's serve, leading 30-0. However, the home player was able to do what Alcaraz did in the previous game and hold his serve despite facing a deficit, but not break points.
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The first break point of the match came after Alcaraz was able to hold his serve through deuce. He managed to get the game on his opponent's serve to deuce as well, but unlike on his serve, he made sure there was a break point on offer this time.
The Spanish player converted the first break point of the match, leading 3-2 in the first set. The four-time major winner was then able to break his opponent's serve one more time to win the first set of the match 6-3.
In the second set, Alcaraz had a perfect start. He won his own service game and then broke Popyrin's, leading 3-0 in almost no time. After a couple more holds, the scoreboard showed 4-2, but that's when Alcaraz got into trouble.
Once again, the World No. 3 player couldn't avoid facing difficulties despite leading 30-0 on his serve. He was broken, and Popyrin was able to later tie the score at 4-4. In the next game, Alcaraz had to go through eight deuces, facing three break points along the way, but he saved them all to make it 5-4.
That was crucial, and he celebrated it accordingly, even though it was only an exhibition match. In the following game, Alcaraz managed to break Popyrin's serve again to win the match 6-3, 6-4.
At the Australian Open, Alcaraz will start against Alexander Shevchenko, while Popyrin's first opponent will be Corentin Moutet.
