Daily Times

MELBOURNE: Second seed Carlos Alcaraz endured a tricky test before finding his groove to overcome Italian Lorenzo Sonego 6-4 6-7(3) 6-3 7-6(3) at the Australian Open on Thursday and make the third round on a day of epic battles.

After fellow seeds Casper Ruud, Alexander Zverev and Cameron Norrie all huffed and puffed to five-set wins over lower-ranked opponents, the 20-year-old Spaniard was tested by the wind against the unseeded Sonego.

“I’m really happy with my performance today,” Alcaraz said. “I think both of us played a really high level, high intensity, the match was a little bit tricky with the wind and the sun.”

The double Grand Slam champion, who missed last year’s tournament due to injury, took the opening set with a single break, then in the next set let Sonego off the hook in the ninth game, and was unable to recover from 5-1 down in the tie-break.

The Italian, ranked 46 in the world, won the pair’s only previous clash in 2021, when Alcaraz was outside the top 50. But the 28-year-old was put through the wringer by his vastly-improved opponent’s heavy forehands to lose the third set.

In a fourth set where both players were at their entertaining best, Sonego surrendered serve early on, but Alcaraz raised his game to reel off the points in the tie-break and go through in style.

“It was tough to play your best but we tried to stay there all the time, even if I lost the second set,” said Alcaraz, who will face Chinese wild card Shang Juncheng next.