World No 2 Carlos Alcaraz is up and running at the ATP Finals at Pala Alpitour after a straight-sets victory over a frustrated Andrey Rublev on Wednesday.
The Spaniard was beaten by Alexander Zverev on Monday in what was his debut appearance at the season-ending tournament. Alcaraz, though, made no mistake in his second Red Group clash when he defeated the Russian fifth seed 7-5, 6-2 in 74 minutes to keep alive his hopes of reaching the semi-finals.
It also brought to an end his three-match losing streak having been beaten by Grigor Dimitrov in Shanghai, Roman Safiullin in Paris and then Zverev in Turin. “It was a totally different match and level from me.
This is the level I have to play if I want to give myself a chance in this amazing tournament,” said Alcaraz, who takes on third seed Daniil Medvedev in his final round-robin match. “Yesterday was a good day for me in practise to find the level I needed to show today and I think I did pretty well.