Alcaraz storms back to beat Cerundolo for first ever match win in Monte-Carlo

Carlos Alcaraz recovered from a slow start to beat Argentinian Francisco Cerundolo 3-6, 6-0, 6-1 on Wednesday and clinch his first ever match win at the Monte-Carlo Masters.

Cerundolo outplayed Alcaraz in the first set, with the second seed looking strangely flat but he stormed back in style to win 12 of the next 13 games for victory.

“I didn’t start well,” he admitted. “I made a lot of mistakes and let him dominate the point. So I knew I had to do something else, play more aggressively, play my own tennis and enjoy playing that tennis, drop shots, going to the net, more aggressive and I think I did it well.”

Alcaraz had to save two break points in the first game of the second set but his decision to stand much closer to the baseline on returns paid immediate dividends and he began to control the match, running away with it in the third with another trademark drop shot.

“I think the most important thing was I tried to return closer to the line, pushing him into defence from the first ball,” he said. “After that I played pretty well.”

Alcaraz happy to get monkey off his back

Alcaraz, ranked No 3, will face German qualifier Daniel Altmaier next and was delighted to finally win his first match at the Monte-Carlo Country Club.

“I’m not going to say I was nervous because of that, but it’s the only tournament that I haven’t won one match before, so it just feel great,” he said. “I’m finally, get my first win here and keep going.

“As I said, this is a really beautiful tournament that I really want to go far I think this year, it’s kind of relief that I got my first win.”

In the previous round of the Monte-Carlo tournament, Cerundolo, ranked No 22, won against Italian wildcard Fabio Fognini (6-0, 6-3).

Monte-Carlo Masters 1000, other second-round results (Monte-Carlo Country Club, clay, EUR 6.128.940, most recent results first):

• Daniil Medvedev vs. Alexandre Muller
• Valentin Vacherot vs. Grigor Dimitrov
• Frances Tiafoe vs. Alexei Popyrin
• Novak Djokovic vs. Alejandro Tabilo
• Roberto Bautista Agut vs. Casper Ruud
• Tomas Machac vs. Alex De Minaur: wednesday
• Andrey Rublev (7) beat Gael Monfils: 6-4, 7-6 (2)
• Arthur Fils (12) beat Flavio Cobolli: 6-2, 6-4
• Daniel Altmaier beat Richard Gasquet (WC): 7-5, 5-7, 6-2
• Alejandro Davidovich Fokina beat Tomas Martin Etcheverry: 7-6 (2), 6-3
• Nuno Borges beat Pedro Martinez Portero: 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-4
• Lorenzo Musetti (13) beat Jiri Lehecka: 1-6, 7-5, 6-2
• Jack Draper (5) beat Marcos Giron: 6-1, 6-1
• Stefanos Tsitsipas (6) beat Jordan Thompson: 4-6, 6-4, 6-2
• Matteo Berrettini beat Alexander Zverev (1): 2-6, 6-3, 7-5