Top seed Carlos Alcaraz survived a huge scare against Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori as his defence of the Madrid Open title began with a hard-fought comeback win.
Spain’s Alcaraz, who turns 20 next week, overcame a slow start to win 2-6 6-4 6-2 against the world number 41.
Alcaraz is the favourite to win the Masters 1000 event on the clay of Madrid, with Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal absent because of injury.
Alcaraz, who won the Barcelona title last week, plays Grigor Dimitrov next.
The world number two expressed his relief at coming through against Ruusuvuori, crucially saving five break points to stop his opponent moving 4-2 ahead in the second set.
“It was really tough, I was about to lose. He was just one point away at 3-2 in the second set – it was like a match point for him,” US Open champion Alcaraz said.
“Emil was better than me until 3-3 in the second set. It was tough to come back but I finished with a lot of confidence.”
What else has happened in Madrid?
Bulgaria’s Dimitrov, seeded 26th, won 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (7-2) against France’s Gregoire Barrere in his second-round match.
Russian fifth seed Andrey Rublev moved into the last 32 with a 6-2 6-4 success against Swiss veteran Stan Wawrinka, but the struggles of Norway’s Casper Ruud – who was seeded third – continued with a 6-3 6-4 defeat by Italian qualifier Matteo Arnaldi.
Ruud, who reached the French Open and US Open finals last year, has only won back-to-back matches at one tournament this year – when he won the Estoril title.
In the WTA event, Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina suffered a surprise defeat to Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya in her opening match.
The world number seven from Kazakhstan won the Indian Wells title and reached the Miami final, but has won one of her opening three matches on the European clay after being beaten 7-5 4-6 6-2 by world number 60 Kalinskaya.
Murray to play clay-court Challenger
Britain’s former world number one Andy Murray has been granted a wildcard into next week’s clay-court ATP Challenger event in Aix-en-Provence.
Murray, 35, lost to Italian qualifier Andrea Vavassori in the Madrid first round on Thursday and needs matches on the clay to prepare for the French Open, which starts on 28 May.
An all-British match saw Heather Watson beat Harriet Dart 3-6 6-4 6-2 to reach the semi-finals of an ITF event – the level below the main WTA Tour – in Corsica.
