US Open Day 2 - Alcaraz shows tennis what it’s been missing

**Matt Roberts** (0:00)
I'm beautiful Marin County, California.

**Catherine Whitaker** (0:02)
This is Michelle McGuinness, and you're listening to The Tennis Podcast.
Hello, and welcome to The Tennis Podcast, coming to you from just behind the practice courts here at Flushing Meadows, New York on day two of the US Open. Today's show introduced beautifully there by Michelle McGuinness, and if you'd like the chance to do the same, then just head to the link in the show notes and become a friend of the pod at intro level. You can also get yourself a shout out, and those will be coming at the end of today's show. Also coming up, we've got Ben Shelton's opener against Tallon Griekspoor to discuss, Iga Swiatek and Naomi Osaka too. That'll all be covered in part two of today's show that we'll be back to record after the night session. But as we come to you here in part one, it is 6:30 p.m. And there's really only one story in town. And that is the return of Carlos Alcaraz, a winning return after five months nearly on the sidelines with a wrist injury, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 over Russian Roman Safiullin, every minute of which was confirmation of just how much tennis has missed him and just how much Carlos Alcaraz too has missed tennis. What, Matt, was the experience like of watching Carl Oth again after five months?

**Matt Roberts** (1:34)
Yes, he was introduced onto court as the two-time defending champion. No, Carl Oth, no, Alcaraz. Yes, we got there eventually.
What was the experience like? Well, it included a lot more nipple than I was expecting. I will say that up front.

**Catherine Whitaker** (1:56)
You and the internet both, Matt.

**Matt Roberts** (1:58)
Yes, his fit for the day, maybe not enough material. Yeah, every time he went to hit his shot, oh, there's his nipple.

**Catherine Whitaker** (2:09)
Yeah, if it wasn't one, it was the other one.

**David Law** (2:11)
Yeah.

**Catherine Whitaker** (2:13)
And it looked like it was irritating. It looked like there might have been a bit of chafing.

**Matt Roberts** (2:20)
Yeah, we'll see what happens in round two.

**Catherine Whitaker** (2:22)
Yeah.

**David Law** (2:23)
So it was a sleeveless shirt, but...

**Catherine Whitaker** (2:25)
It was a basketball style shirt. Obviously, we saw him in the mixed doubles, so we knew that was the type of kit he'd be wearing, but it was a different...
It was actually brown, and I thought pretty disgusting. I think we've just been really well established over the years that brown cannot... Brown just doesn't work in... Athletically, anyway. I quite like brown, you know, in casual wear, but, you know, we've all agreed, let's not do brown. I mean, you know, you look better in brown than most people, but bring back the vibrant purple, I say, and maybe cover up the nipples.

**Matt Roberts** (3:03)
But the tennis...

**Catherine Whitaker** (3:06)
Well done for getting that out of the way, Matt.

**Matt Roberts** (3:08)
Yeah, I just thought we've got to mention it upfront. I thought everyone was thinking, watching the match.
I was braced at the start, you know, a little bit tense as he took to the court, and he was nervous too, you could tell. Just as he did in the mixed doubles, he double faulted on his first service point. And in those early stages, I thought he was a little bit tentative, but fine, you know, a little bit rusty, but absolutely fine. And it quickly became obvious that he wasn't really protecting himself too much. I think through the match, his serve speeds were down on what we would expect from him. You know, he was hitting some first serves in the 90 miles per hour.
He can crank it up a lot more than that. But generally, yes, a bit of a tentative start, but he grew into it and was pretty good, really. I think had we not had the four month break, we'd have been looking at this first round performance breaking up, you know, just a nice, easy, steady start for Carlos Alcaraz to his US. Open. It was amazing how much it looked like that after so long off, and yeah, there were these reminders through the match of what he's capable of. Even in the final game, we saw a classic Alcaraz point where he ran forward to get a dead net cord, hit a backhand smash, hit a bounce smash, followed it in and hit a drop volley. And it was like four shots that kind of no one else in the draw would play in the same point. And yet he strung them all together, gave the finger to the ear, and generally was pretty comfortable really against a pretty decent opponent in Roman Safiullin. And even when he went down to break at the start of the second, having won the first, he got it back straight away, which was a good sign, I think, didn't allow it to become a tussle. Started unleashing on some forehands at points in the match, but generally was constructing points really well and methodically and just looked like he was having a great time. The amount of moments where just a huge smile broke out across his face was really notable and he was very upbeat in the press conference afterwards as well and just a very good day for tennis, really, that after what was it, 120-something days, Carlos Alcaraz is back, pain free, we think, and playing pretty well.