Javier Sanchez

Updated Saturday, January 20, 2024-06:44

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It was a curiosity, another statistic.

For the first time in his professional career, after exactly 200 ATP matches,

Carlos Alcaraz

found himself facing an opponent younger than him.

At 20 years and 8 months old, the Spaniard faced Chinese

Juncheng Shang

, 18 years and 11 months old, this Saturday in the third round of the Australian Open.

It was a curiosity, another statistic.

Until he started grieving and stopped being grieving.

Shang's age was decisive from the first minute: energy, creativity, and enthusiasm were expected, but on his part there was only inexperience.

Against him, Alcaraz enjoyed his most peaceful victory in a Grand Slam (6-1, 6-1 and 1-0 in one hour) and is already in the round of 16 in Melbourne, where this Monday he will face the Serbian

Miomir Kecmanovic

.

Shang was surely hurt by some discomfort in the quadriceps of his right leg that forced him to play with a bandage, call for a medical time-out and finally retire.

But her problems went beyond that.

At his debut on a center court, the packed Rod Laver Arena, the Chinese flinched and Alcaraz took him by.

Left-handed and owner of a complex serve, he could have been a difficult opponent and he was quite the opposite.

In the first set, his 13 unforced errors were a disastrous performance.

While Alcaraz flew over the track, very aggressive with his right, showing off points like a beautiful balloon in the race, Shang didn't know what to do, where to shoot, how to respond.

Despite some wasted break options - six out of nine in particular - it took the Spaniard less than half an hour to resolve that period and clear his path.

Then, in the second set, the Chinese began to find himself on the court, played better shots and seemed to wake up, but just at that moment the pain in his leg stopped him.

In that moment he was finished.

During the medical timeout, Alcaraz had fun with the fans dancing and Shang understood that his first match against a Top 10 in a Grand Slam was already over.

They both endured a few more games with the utmost professionalism possible and that was it.

"I have to play better"

"It's not the way I wanted to win, I hope Shang can recover quickly," commented Alcaraz at the end, who will hardly be able to draw conclusions from yesterday's match.

In fact, as he confessed, she would surely do a brief training afterwards to continue improving in Australia.

"Last year I watched the matches of this Grand Slam from the couch and now I'm in the second week. I have to play better and better if I want to continue advancing," confessed the Spaniard, who this Saturday had a more peaceful day than expected .