Carlos Alcaraz\u2019s fine record at the Barcelona Open continued with a hard-fought opening win over American qualifier Ethan Quinn.<\/p>\n
Just two days after his triumph at the Monte Carlo Masters, world No 2 Alcaraz<\/a> was back on court on Tuesday in Barcelona against the world No 126, who did not make life easy for the Spaniard.<\/p>\n Quinn held a set point in the second set tiebreak, having broken Alcaraz while serving for the match, though the four-time Grand Slam champion rallied to secure a 6-2, 7-6(6) victory.<\/p>\n Victory for Alcaraz continues an impressive run of form for the 21-year-old at the ATP 500 event, having won the tournament in both 2022 and 2023, before withdrawing from the tournament last year due to a forearm injury.<\/p>\n In fact, the only person to have so far beaten Alcaraz in Barcelona is Frances Tiafoe, who defeated the Spaniard \u2013 as a 17-year-old wildcard \u2013 6-4, 7-6(2) in the opening round back in 2021.<\/p>\n That means that Alcaraz has an 11-1 record from his first 12 matches at the Barcelona Open, a record only one man in the Open Era can beat.<\/p>\n That man happens to be tennis legend Mats Wilander<\/a>, a former world No 1 and seven-time Grand Slam singles champion.<\/p>\n Wilander held a perfect 12-0 record in his first 12 matches in Barcelona, winning six matches on his way to the title on his maiden appearance in 1982, before successfully defending his title in 1983.<\/p>\n The Swede would remain unbeaten after winning a third title in 1984 and would ultimately win his first 23 matches at the tournament before his run was snapped by a defeat to Thierry Tulasne in the 1985 final.<\/p>\n While Alcaraz cannot match Wilander\u2019s perfect record from his opening 12 matches, the 21-year-old can still match the clay-court great by winning his third Barcelona Open title in 2025.<\/p>\n What Carlos Alcaraz said about criticism and expectations he has faced in 2025 ahead of Barcelona bid<\/a><\/p>\n Bjorn Borg predicts whether Carlos Alcaraz will match or surpass Rafael Nadal\u2019s achievements<\/a><\/p>\n Alcaraz is considered by many to be the favourite for the title at the ATP 500 event and he will be a significant favourite for his second-round match against Laslo Djere.<\/p>\n Much like Quinn, Djere is a qualifier into the main draw, though he has now won three straight matches in Barcelona after a 6-7(2), 6-1, 6-2 opening-round main draw win over Arthur Rinderknech.<\/p>\n Alcaraz is then projected to face fifth seed Alex de Minaur in the quarter-final, third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas \u2013 who he beat in the 2023 final \u2013 in the last four, and then second seed Casper Ruud in the final.<\/p>\n In Alcaraz\u2019s absence, Ruud claimed the title in Barcelona a year ago, beating Tsitsipas 7-5, 6-3 to win what remains the biggest title of his career.<\/p>\n The Norwegian began his title defence with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Daniel Elahi Galan on Tuesday, while four-time runner-up Tsitsipas breezed past Reilly Opelka 6-2, 6-2.<\/p>\n Read Next<\/strong>:\u00a0The 11 men to win multiple Barcelona Open titles: Rafael Nadal unrivalled, Carlos Alcaraz on 2<\/a><\/p>\n The post Carlos Alcaraz hits Barcelona Open milestone bettered by only one former No 1 after opening win<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Carlos Alcaraz\u2019s fine record at the Barcelona Open continued with a hard-fought opening win over American qualifier Ethan Quinn. Just two days after his triumph at the Monte Carlo Masters, world No 2 Alcaraz was back on court on Tuesday in Barcelona against the world No 126, who did not make life easy for the […]<\/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-308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308","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=308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Carlos Alcaraz News<\/h2>\n