NEW YORK — Carlos Alcaraz dropped the opening set, won eight consecutive games, and beat Jaime Faria 4-6, 6-0, 6-3, 6-2 on Wednesday night in the second round of the US Open at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Wednesday was the second match Alcaraz has played since April. A right wrist injury cost him four months and kept him out of the French Open and Wimbledon, and 139 days passed between his last singles match, in Barcelona in mid-April, and his first-round win over Roman Safiullin on Monday. That one went 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.
Faria broke serve for a 4-3 lead in the opening set and held the rest of the way. The unseeded 23-year-old from Portugal then won seven of his 21 service points in the second set, which Alcaraz took 6-0. Alcaraz, seeded No. 2, has been broken three times through two matches, twice on Wednesday. He lost serve three times in 101 service games during his title run last year, according to ESPN.
Carlos Alcaraz on the Wrist and the First-Set Break
Alcaraz said the break came while he was rushing, shortening points, and going for the finish too early, an approach he called a mistake and replaced with rallies of three, four, or five shots.
“After that I just tried to be focused, tried to stay calm,” Alcaraz said in comments reported by The Associated Press.
Alcaraz said he is no longer in pain and has been hitting his forehand without restriction in practice. He wanted a quicker night, he said, and came around to the four sets as a test of how the body would respond the next morning.
Daniil Medvedev, the 2021 US Open champion, said nobody knows how the wrist or the body will hold up deeper into the draw and called Alcaraz a top favorite for the title.
The Record Alcaraz Carries Into the Third Round
Last year in New York, Alcaraz did not drop a set until the final. He was the first man since Roger Federer in 2015 to reach that stage of the US Open without losing one, and he beat Jannik Sinner in four sets for his second title at Flushing Meadows. He won the first of his majors on the same courts in 2022, at 19.
On Feb. 1 in Melbourne, Alcaraz beat Novak Djokovic 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 7-5 for his seventh major title and his first Australian Open. He was 22 that night, the youngest man to complete the career Grand Slam. His Grand Slam winning streak now stands at 16 matches.
Alcaraz is 14-10 in major matches he opens by losing the first set. That record ranks third in the Open era among men with at least 20 such matches, behind Bjorn Borg at 27-13 and John Newcombe at 15-10, according to ESPN. Sinner is 15-11.
Faria reached the second round for the first time by beating Jenson Brooksby in five sets in the opening round. He is about three months younger than Alcaraz, who has not lost a tour-level match to a younger player.
Yibing Wu Next in the Third Round
No man has won consecutive US Open singles titles since Federer took five straight from 2004 through 2008.
Alcaraz plays Yibing Wu of China in the third round Friday. The two have met once, in the third round of the 2024 Shanghai Masters, where Alcaraz won 7-6 (5), 6-3. ESPN carries the tournament.