One hour and 38 minutes. No longer time than that was required for Alcaraz to defeat the Italian Mattia Bellucci from Italy in straight sets, 6–1, 6–0, 6–3.
I played fantastically today. This was not his (Bellucci's) day, I made sure to take advantage of his mistakes, said the Spaniard in his victory interview.
Looking at the statistics, it's hard not to share his analysis.
The five-time Grand Slam winner, whose shaved head has led many to draw parallels to David Beckham's hairstyle transformation from the early 2000s, did not need to save a single break ball. At the same time, he made 32 winning shots, almost three times more than Bellucci's eleven. In the third round, another Italian awaits, this time the 34th-ranked Luciano Darderi.
It went worse for the two Scandinavians on the men's side. First, Norway's Casper Ruud, ranked twelfth in the world, was eliminated by the 107th-ranked Belgian Raphael Collignon. A few hours later, it was the turn of Danish star Holger Rune to pack his bags after he lost to another Belgian, veteran Jan-Lennard Struff. That meeting also became a five-set thriller.
Another who had a dismal day at work was Jack Draper from the United Kingdom, who late on Wednesday evening announced that he is withdrawing from the US Open due to an injury.
