Carlos Alcaraz of El Palmar, Spain continues to play remarkable tennis at only the age of 19. On Sunday, this young Spanish phenom once again showed athletic excellence on clay as he successfully defended his Barcelona Open title from 2022.
In Sunday’s final, Alcaraz, who was seeded first, defeated the second seed, Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, 6-3, 6-4 in one hour and 18 minutes. Alcaraz had three aces compared to one for Tsitsipas. Alcaraz also won 81% of his points on his first serve, and 73% of his points on his second serve. Alcaraz also broke Tsitsipas thrice.
During the 2023 Barcelona Open, Alcaraz beat four seeded players. In addition to beating Tsitsipas, he defeated the 13th seed, Roberto Bautista Agut of Castellon de la Plana, Spain, 6-3, 7-5 in the third round, the 10th seed, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain, 7-6, 6-4 in the quarterfinals, and the 12th seed, Daniel Evans of Great Britain, 6-2, 6-2 in the semifinals.
Alcaraz has had remarkable success against fellow Spanish players in Barcelona the last two years. In addition to beating Bautista Agut and Davidovich Fokina in Barcelona this year, he beat wildcard Jaume Munar 6-3, 6-3 in the third round and Pablo Carreno Busta 6-3, 6-2 in the final in 2022.
This was Alcaraz’s third title of 2023. After withdrawing from the 2023 Australian Open due to a right leg injury, he won the 2023 Argentina Open by beating Cameron Norrie of Great Britain 6-3, 7-5 in the final, and then won Indian Wells by beating Daniil Medvedev of Russia, 6-3, 6-2.
Next up for Alcaraz is the Madrid Open, where he is also the defending champion. Being a seeded player, he has a bye to the second round where he will either play Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland or Ugo Humbert of France.
