Carlos Alcaraz: 'I had to play my tennis' to escape Francisco Cerundolo for first-ever Monte Carlo win

“Monte…Carlitos?”

That was the question scrawled on a sign that a fan held up during Carlos “Call me Carlitos” Alcaraz’s opening-round match in Monte Carlo on Wednesday.

The question mark was very much appropriate, because the idea seemed like a bit of a long shot at the start of the Spaniard’s opening-round encounter with Francisco Cerundolo. Alcaraz, despite his mastery of clay in other locales, had never won a match in Monte Carlo, and had only played the tournament once.

Unfortunately for Cerundolo, that’s exactly what happened. In this case, the entire match swung toward Alcaraz. From that point on, he was the one who controlled the court position, who dictated the patterns of the rallies, who broke serve at will, and who finished with a fully confident flurry of drop shots. He would lose just one more game in a 3-6, 6-0, 6-1 win in 98 minutes.

“I didn’t start well, I made a lot of mistakes, let him play inside the court and dominate the points,” Alcaraz said.

“After the first set I had to do something else. I had to play more aggressively. I had to play my tennis.”

The biggest difference, Alcaraz said, was his determination to move up and “return close to the line.” That set the tone for the way he played the rest of a point.

By the third set, Alcaraz was anticipating everything, and was in position for any Cerundolo ground stroke. Even if the ball came to him deep and with pace, Alcaraz took it on the rise and didn’t back up. This was the Spaniard at his most efficient, controlling play without having to do anything spectacular or risky.

“I missed clay,” he wrote on the ATP’s camera lens afterward.

With this first win in Monte Carlo under his belt, Alcaraz will move on to face Daniel Altmaier on Thursday. We may not be ready to rename the town Monte Carlitos quite yet, but for one round, all of his recent doubts were cleared away. He started ice cold, and finished en fuego.