(Tennis news) It took Carlos Alcaraz just one and a half hours to defeat British number 1 Cameron Norrie 6-3, 7-5 to win the Argentina Open. It was the Spaniard’s first trophy of 2023 as he was forced on the sidelines for four months due to abdominal and leg injuries. Norrie, who was seeded second, reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon last year and was looking to win a fifth ATP Tour singles title at the clay-court event in Buenos Aires. However, his 19 year old opponent proved to be too strong and became the youngest Argentina Open champion in history.
The match looked like it would be a close one with the score tied 3-3 but Alcaraz went on to break Norrie twice in succession to take the opening set. Norrie was also broken in his first serving game of the second set before going 3-0 down but he fought back valiantly at 5-3 to make things level but Alcaraz went on to secure the win with another break.
The 19 year old became the first Spaniard to win the Argentina Open since Rafael Nadal in 2015. Speaking after the match, Alcaraz said “I felt very comfortable playing the final. I knew that it was going to be really difficult. I started to really focus on what I had to do at the beginning – my game, my level. This is the level that I have to play in finals.”
In other results, former World Number 1 Daniil Medvedev won the 16th title of his career at the Rotterdam Open after defeating Jannik Sinner in the final. The 27 year old defeated Sinner 5-7 6-2 6-2 to claim a first ATP crown since winning the Vienna Open in October. After a closely contested first set, Medvedev forced Sinner to make early errors in the second set, before breaking twice in the deciding third set.
Speaking after the match, Medvedev said “It was a very tough match, I would say mentally for both of us, I think. Jannik was on top of me, especially in the first part of the first set. I managed to come back into the set even though, in my opinion, I was playing worse than him. I just managed to continue pushing him mentally down until the end of the match.”
Also read: British tennis star Cameron Norrie reaches semi-final of Argentina Open
