Alcaraz debuts in Buenos Aires | ATP Tour

Buenos Aires

Alcaraz has a difficult premiere in Buenos Aires

The Spaniard scored 160 victories on the ATP tour.

February 15, 2024

Carlos Alcaraz is the current champion of the ATP 250 tournament in Buenos Aires.
Author: ATPTour.com/es staff

Carlos Alcaraz remains undefeated at the IEB+ Argentina Open. This Thursday, the Spaniard achieved his fifth victory in five games of this tournament thanks to his successful debut in this edition. A 6-2, 7-5 victory against local Camilo Hugo Carabelli sparked a new push at the ATP 250 tournament in Buenos Aires.

His unbeaten streak began exactly a year ago. On February 15, 2023, in his first match at this tournament, he needed three sets to defeat Serbia’s Laszlo Djere and take the first step on a path that would end with the title. Twelve months later, the 20-year-old from Murcia made his triumphant debut in Argentina.

And even though he was doing it against a local team, he wasn’t under the same pressure that players from other countries felt in Buenos Aires when facing local teams. The Argentine public’s respect and admiration for Alcaraz was evident in the thousands of fans who virtually filled the stadium just to see him (the tournament’s largest capacity to date) and in the outcome of the match, in which he inspired cheers and applause from the start to end.

Despite the tough fight given by Camilo Hugo (he broke through in the first two games of the rest of the first set, and in the first of the second), Alcaraz gradually found his rhythm. He prevented the Argentine, ranked 134th in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, from taking a 3-1 lead in the first match and extending his lead to 2-0 in the second.

Moreover, he showed patience after wasting his first two match points: one on serve at 5-3 and the other on the rest at 5-4. He finished with a recovery from 0/40 at 5-5. Of course, in the next game he broke zero.

One hour and 45 minutes later, No. 2 Pepperstone ATP is celebrating victory again at the ATP 250 in Buenos Aires and confirming his absolute dominance on the clay tour in recent times. He finished 2023 as the player with the most wins on the surface (25-3 record) and now celebrated his first match in such conditions.

This result also allows Alcaraz to post a 5–1 record on the season and reach 160 career ATP Tour match wins, establishing himself as the third player born this century with the most ATP Tour wins. He is surpassed only by Jannik Sinner (199) and Felix Auger-Aliassime (189).

He could continue his improvement this Friday when he faces Italy’s Andrea Vavassori, who emerged from qualifying to defeat seventh-seeded Serb Djere. This will be the first meeting between Alcaraz and Vavassori.