Quick and clear. The essentials from Friday’s tennis action in Madrid

The Madrid Open is in full swing. On Friday, the top-seeded men’s and top women’s player took to the Caja Mágica courts. The last two Czech women were not missing.

The Carlos Alcaraz show?

The world number two is the biggest favourite of the event and he is playing on home soil. He got off to a slow start today against Finland’s Ruusuvuori. After losing the first set, he broke his opponent only in the middle of the second set. The home player, after a great fight, held his serve in the sixth game, took the 24-year-old Finn’s serve in the seventh and went on to win 2: 1 sets.

Two big obstacles loom for Alcaraz in the Russian. He may soon meet world No. 12 Karen Khachanov or ATP No. 6 Andrey Rublyov. Both of these players won on Friday. Khachanov is worth mentioning that he made only seven unforced errors in three sets against Brazilian Monteiro. Rubljov got the better of the veteran Wawrinka 7::5, 6::4.

World number four Casper Ruud did reveal a plan to kick-start his unconvincing performances, but it didn’t work against Italian Arnaldo on Friday. The Italian was more attacking and deservedly won 6: 3, 6: 4. In his part of the pavilion, he now has some time off from the seeded tennis players, and may not meet another one until the quarter-finals.

One more name to mention:: Halvor Rune. The 19-year-old Dane already shone last week in Munich. In his opening match in the Spanish capital, he faced Kazakhstan Bublik and the match was decided in the third set tiebreak. The favourite from the north of Europe missed four match points, turned away one and then enjoyed the progress. He won 6::1, 4::6 and 7::6.

The last Czechs

After Thursday’s exodus of Czech tennis players, our last two representatives remained in the tournament. The top seed Barbora Kejcikova faced Montenegro’s Kovinic and after two evenly matched sets, she went over her 6:0 in the third set and is moving on in the tournament.

Marie Bouzkova is trying to match last year’s eighth-place finish in the tournament and on Friday she challenged Belarusian Sasnovic. The Czech turned the first set around from 0: 3, lost the second in a tiebreak and enjoyed a 6: 3 win in the third. In the almost three-hour match she had seven aces.

It was the American Parks who was again successful in the number of aces. It took her an hour and three quarters to get thirteen. With their abundant help, she defeated former world number one Victoria Azarenka.

This is the first year that the American is competing in such a valuable tennis event. She dropped out in the first round on home soil in Miami and Indiana Wells, so it is clear that she will significantly improve her WTA 1000 tournament high in the Spanish capital.

World No. 1 Iga Swiatek has advanced quietly. She won 6::2 and 6::3 against Julia Gabher and her stock was slightly boosted by another circumstance throughout the tournament. While in two big events this year her journey ended on Jelena Rybakina’s racket, she doesn’t have to worry about it in Madrid.

For Yelena Rybakina succumbed in three sets to Anna Kalinskaya of Russia. The first two were evenly matched, but in the third set, the favoured Kazakh didn’t stand a chance and lost 2:6. The world number seven basically confirmed her poor results on clay and the world number seven said goodbye to the tournament in her first match.

Source