TURIN, Italy — Carlos Alcaraz bought his bid to win a primary ATP Finals crown — and declare the year-end No. 1 rating — off to a optimistic begin on Sunday with a straight-set victory over Alex de Minaur.
Alcaraz recovered from a topsy-turvy opening set to triumph 7-6 (5), 6-2 over the seventh-seeded De Minaur within the opening match of the season-ending occasion for the highest eight males’s gamers.
Ben Shelton noticed three set factors saved on his ATP Finals debut with two-time champion Alexander Zverev occurring to beat the American 6-3, 7-6 (6).
Prime-seeded Alcaraz is concerned in a tussle with defending champion Jannik Sinner to finish the yr as No. 1 and the Spaniard can safe that — no matter what his rival does — if he reaches the ultimate.
It was the primary time Alcaraz had gained his ATP Finals opener.
“This event is without doubt one of the finest tournaments now we have on tour, definitely,” Alcaraz mentioned. “We’re enjoying towards one of the best gamers on the earth, which exhibits how tough and essential it’s.
“I’ve been struggling prior to now few years to come back to the tip of the yr with motivation. This yr is a little bit bit completely different, which I’m proud about, I’m doing the precise issues to present myself a shot to attempt to win this event.”
Alcaraz appeared in agency management of the opening set. He had already damaged De Minaur to like and threatened to do the identical within the sixth recreation to go 5-1 up, however the Australian fought again to deuce earlier than staving off one other break level after which taking the sport.
De Minaur then broke again and took the set to a tiebreaker the place he had a 5-3 benefit earlier than Alcaraz rallied.
The 22-year-old Alcaraz dominated the second set, dropping his serve early however successful all the opposite video games and sealing the victory with a cross-court backhand on his second match level.
Taylor Fritz can also be within the Jimmy Connors group with Alcaraz, De Minaur and Lorenzo Musetti, who changed the injured Novak Djokovic.
The Bjorn Borg group has Sinner, Zverev, Shelton and Felix Auger-Aliassime.
It took the third-seeded Zverev simply 28 minutes to wrap up the primary set towards Shelton, who then appeared to step up a gear and had an important likelihood to degree the match within the second-set tiebreaker.
Shelton raced right into a 4-0 lead and wasted three set factors earlier than sending a backhand extensive at hand Zverev the victory after 93 minutes.
The highest two finishers in every group advance to the semifinals.
