{"id":2724,"date":"2026-09-01T17:00:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T17:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2724"},"modified":"2026-09-01T17:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T17:00:13","slug":"martina-navratilova-explains-what-carlos-alcaraz-was-like-backstage-after-his-first-us-open-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2724","title":{"rendered":"Martina Navratilova explains what Carlos Alcaraz was like backstage after his first US Open victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> is off and running at the US Open after playing his first round match during the Grand Slam\u2019s second day of action.<\/p>\n

The Spaniard defeated Roman Safiullin in straight sets to return to tennis with a win, in what was his first match since suffering a wrist injury at the Barcelona Open in April.<\/p>\n

With the victory, Alcaraz set up a second round tie against Jaime Faria and he remains one of the favourites to win the US Open this year, particularly with Novak Djokovic\u2019s early exit and Jannik Sinner\u2019s withdrawal.<\/p>\n

Greg Rusedski is still concerned about Alcaraz<\/a>, whereas other top pundits have praised the star returning with a straightforward win in New York.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Sky Sports\u2019 coverage of the US Open, Martina Navratilova called Alcaraz\u2019s return to tennis after five months a \u201cperfect situation\u201d as he romped into the second round.<\/p>\n

More Carlos Alcaraz news<\/h2>\n

Carlos Alcaraz backed to reach US Open final \u2013 but is behind \u2018prime Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal\u2019 in one area<\/a><\/p>\n

Carlos Alcaraz makes \u2018doubts\u2019 confession as he reacts to impressive US Open comeback<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHe was pushed but not too much, he is going to get better and the three out of five format really helps him here, as long as the arm doesn\u2019t get hurt,\u201d continued Navratilova<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it holds up, three out of five is great because it gives him a little cushion. He doesn\u2019t have to stress about getting broken and the other guy has to play well for three of five sets and that gives him a chance to get into the tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could see during the match that he became more comfortable and at the end he hit that unbelievable drop shot volley inside out. He is all back!\u201d<\/p>\n

Navratilova also disclosed what happened when she met Alcaraz<\/a> backstage after he had confirmed his place in the second round of the US Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI bumped into him in the hallway,\u201d she added. \u201cHe is so happy to be back and see everybody, that\u2019s what he said. You can see it. He is a competitor and a kid at heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is playing a sport for a living and he is phenomenal at it and what is not to love? It is so great to have him back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alcaraz will, of course, have more difficult tests to come should he advance into the later stages of the tournament.<\/p>\n

Should he find a way past Faria in the second round, he will meet either James Duckworth or Wu Yibing in the third round of the US Open.<\/p>\n

Matches against either Alexander Bublik<\/a> or Tommy Paul<\/a> could come in the fourth round, which would give his lack of match practice a real test.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The post Martina Navratilova explains what Carlos Alcaraz was like backstage after his first US Open victory<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carlos Alcaraz is off and running at the US Open after playing his first round match during the Grand Slam\u2019s second day of action. The Spaniard defeated Roman Safiullin in straight sets to return to tennis with a win, in what was his first match since suffering a wrist injury at the Barcelona Open in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2724\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}