US Open winner Carlos Alcaraz made it to the round of 16 at the ATP tournament in Basel with some difficulty. The world number one from Spain won against the British Jack Draper 3: 6, 6: 2, 7: 5 and thus avoided his second first round in a row. At the beginning of the month he lost to the Belgian veteran David Goffin at the tournament in Astana/Kazakhstan.
Alcaraz turned up the heat in the second half on Monday and didn’t give Draper a chance with his powerful game. Even in the decisive sentence, he was ahead in the crucial moments. The 19-year-old managed a break when the score was 5: 5, in the subsequent service game Alcaraz used his third match point to win.
In the round of 16, the Spaniard will face Adrian Mannarino from France or the Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp.
The indoor tournament in Basel was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the corona pandemic. Roger Federer won the last edition to date in 2019 – at that time the Swiss won his tenth title at his home tournament.