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World No 1 Carlos Alcaraz said he knew that he needed to approach the Yoshihito Nishioka match fully locked in as he was glad that he was able to start his Paris Masters campaign with a win. Alcaraz, who is the top-seeded player in Paris, had a first-round bye at the tournament.
On Wednesday, Alcaraz saw off world No 38 Nishioka 6-4 6-4 to reach the Paris round-of-16. "First round in every tournament is never easy. You have to be really focused, you have to try to get good rhythm, good feeling in the first round.
I'm really happy with the performance, the level that I played, and I'm looking forward to getting better in the next round," Alcaraz said after his opening win in Paris, per the ATP website. Alcaraz, who reached the Basel semifinal last week, is now aiming to also make a deep run in Paris.
"This court is a little bit different than Basel. I had to get used to this court in the match. I felt [it was] fast, this court, but I'm a good player on indoor courts. These kind of courts help me with my game," Alcaraz added.
How Alcaraz defeated Nishioka?
Alcaraz claimed the first break of the match as he broke Nishioka in the fifth game for a 3-2 lead. In the seventh game, Alcaraz had a chance to go up by a double break but Nishioka saved that break point chance to cut the deficit to 4-3.
Then, Nishioka got the break back in the eighth game to tie the first set to four games apiece. However, blowing an early break didn't impact Alcaraz, who broke Nishioka again in the ninth game and served out for the first set in the following game.
In the second set, no breaks were seen until the ninth game, when Alcaraz broke Nishioka for a 5-4 lead and to give himself a chance to serve out for the match. In the 10th game, Alcaraz realized his first match point and completed a two-set win.