Carlos Alcaraz may have taken a short time to find his range Wednesday, but once he did, the second seed found a relentless gear to reach the US Open third round.
The Spaniard downed Jaime Faria 4-6, 6-0, 6-3, 6-2, playing his way into form and producing perhaps his best set of his campaign thus far in the second set.
Competing this fortnight for the first time since suffering a right wrist injury in mid-April, the No. 3 player in the PIF ATP Rankings has shown no signs of discomfort across his opening two matches.
Faria, World No. 72, tested Alcaraz in the early stages of the match and on occasion throughout the night. The heavy-hitting Portuguese player earned the first break of the match at 3-3 in the opening set when Alcaraz missed a serve plus-one forehand, usually a routine lethal shot for the fan favourite.
“The first set, I was feeling great, had a break point and a pretty easy forehand for me that I missed. I was in a rush. I didn’t take time. I wasn’t patient," Alcaraz said in his on-court interview. "That cost me the break. Against someone like Jaime, he’s serving like 140 [mph], every serve is really difficult.
"After that, I just tried to be focused and stay calm and think that good things are going to happen again."
After dropping the first set, Alcaraz saved a break point in his opening service game of the second frame before tallying eight consecutive games. The 23-year-old earned his first break of the match with a forehand pass, sending the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd into a roar while celebrating with a fist pump. The second set lasted just 33 minutes and proved the match’s turning point, as Alcaraz settled in and Faria’s level dipped.
The rest of the way, it was hard to tell that Alcaraz missed four months of competition. The seven-time major titlist played freely and struck the ball cleanly to advance after two hours and 40 minutes. He struck 43 winners and won 70 per cent of his second-serve points, compared to Faria’s 31 per cent.
Alcaraz is bidding to become the first player to defend the US Open title since Roger Federer triumphed five times in a row from 2004 to 2008. The ATP No. 1 Club member is a two-time champion in New York, having won his first major crown there in 2022 before his 2025 triumph.
Earlier this year, Alcaraz became the youngest man in history to complete the Career Grand Slam at age 22. Alcaraz’s latest Flushing Meadows victory is his 26th main-draw win at the American Slam, his highest mark among the four majors.
Improving to 9-0 at the majors in 2026, Alcaraz next meets China's Wu Yibing, who ousted James Duckworth 7-5, 6-3, 6-1. Alcaraz leads their Lexus ATP Head2Head series 1-0. Their lone meeting came in Shanghai in 2024.
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