Portugal Colonial - Alcaraz overcomes blip to reach French Open third round

The Spaniard started imperiously as he raced into a one-set lead before his Hungarian rival broke him in the very first game of the second frame and served out to level matters.

"I think today was a really good match for me. I played great. But yeah, in the second set, at the beginning he broke my serve," Alcaraz told his post-match press conference.

"I think he started to play better and better, and he reached a level that I couldn't handle it.

"So it was great level from him."

However, the world number two swiftly refound his excellent clay court form, which saw him win at Monte Carlo and Rome before Roland Garros, to storm through in four sets.

"(I am) just really proud about refresh my mind and I started the third set really, really well and ended up playing really great two last sets," Alcaraz added.

"I didn't feel like I lost the focus at all. He just played much better. So I just think today was I maintain my level during the whole match.

"But in the second set, he reached just much better level than I did."

Next Alcaraz will face home hope Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard or Bosnian Damir Dzumhur in the round of 32.

Despite being through to the third round, Alcaraz refused to look forward to a potential final against Italian world number one Jannik Sinner.

"(The) final is too far away right now to think about," he said. "Here in the last four matches against him (Sinner), it's great having wins against him, but I don't know if in case I'm gonna face him sooner or later."

The 22-year-old beat Sinner in the semi-finals of the French Open last year and most recently defeated him in the Italian Open final earlier in May.

Alcaraz has won his last four matches against Sinner on all surfaces, with his only defeat against his rival on clay coming at the Umag final three years ago.

T.Batista--PC