Defending champion hits the ground running against Italian
©Corinne Dubreuil / FFTCarlos Alcaraz (2) bt Giulio Zeppieri (Q) 6-3, 6-4, 6-2
Carlos Alcaraz has cleared his first hurdle as the reigning Roland-Garros champion, hastily accounting for Italian lefty Giulio Zeppieri on Court Suzanne-Lenglen on Monday.
The Spaniard got a rise out of certain sections of the crowd for taking sides in an upcoming European football final, but he had the majority singing his praises after the straight-sets defeat.
The added weight of attempting to defend a major gave Alcaraz more to ponder but after his return to world No.2 on the heels of his first Rome Masters title over No.1 Jannik Sinner, his form was humming along nicely again following his pre-clay-swing struggles.
A comfortable buffer of two sets against the 23-year-old, who had qualified for the fourth straight year, gave him the comfort to lift a notch in the third set and he ripped a backhand winner down the line from well wide on return for the double break.
Two games later he closed out the contest on his third ace for a second-round clash against Hungarian Fabian Marozsan. He finished with 31 winners to the world No.310’s 23 and 23 unforced errors to 28.
©Corinne Dubreuil / FFTStill 10 Slam titles shy of Pete Sampras’ haul, barring his trophy at Roland-Garros, Alcaraz would be reluctant to compare himself to the American great in any context at this early stage of his career.
After passing the opening test though, he improved his record at the majors to 65-12 (84.4 per cent), now clear of Sampras’ 203-38 (84.2 per cent) for outright fifth winning percentage among men in the Open era with a minimum of 10 matches.
Only Bjorn Borg, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer have higher winning ratios - not bad company at all.
Alcaraz has also ensured the defending men’s champion in Paris has never lost their first match – a staggering 53-0 record. It remains the only major where the reigning men's champion has never fallen in the first round of their title defence.
The television documentary Carlos Alcaraz: My Way this year gave rare, behind-the-scenes glimpses into the popular Spaniard’s life off court, including his close relationship with his family back in El Palmar, where he grew up.
Despite all the fame and fortune that he has built at just 22 years of age, Alcaraz insisted life was still relatively normal.
“Once I am at home with my family I just be myself, just Alcaraz as a person, not the player, which is great sometimes to turn off your mind from tennis and living your life a little bit as a person,” he said.
“In that documentary I just wanted to show myself, how I am as a person, how I struggle with different kinds of situations during the professional part and the personal part. I said many times, after the tournament it's great to come back home, feel like I'm a normal kid and just trying to refresh my mind before the next tournaments.”
As an avid football fan, Alcaraz, amid his Roland-Garros routines, will tune into Saturday’s UEFA Champions League Final in Munich between Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan.
As a loyal Real Madrid supporter, however, he has less at stake. There was no room for fence-sitting though, even if it did set off rounds of boos from sections of the Lenglen crowd.
With PSG’s Achraf Hakimi, Desire Doue, Joao Neves and Nuno Mendes watching from the stands, Alcaraz said just what they wanted to hear.
“I'm going to support PSG for different reasons,” he said. “Hakimi, I know him, obviously the coach of PSG (Luis Enrique) as well. I'm sorry guys, I know it's difficult because I know a few players for Inter as well, but I'm going to be with PSG this match.”
ROLAND-GARROS
19 May - 8 June 2025
©Corinne Dubreuil / FFT