PARIS – Carlos Alcaraz opened the French open title defense on Monday with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Italian qualifier Giulio Zeppieri, ranked 310th.
Alcaraz won all 14 service games and saved three breakpoints he faced at Suzanne Rengren.
“It was really, really solid,” Alkaraz said. “I’m really proud of my start.”
Elsewhere in the men’s bracket, fourth-seeded American Taylor Fritz crashed out of the tournament on Monday as German Daniel Altmeyer suffered a 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 defeat.
Altmaier broke Fritz’s big serve five times on the Simonne-Mathieu court, finishing California’s 15-game Grand Slam win against players ranked outside the top 50.
Alcaraz is second seeded behind Janik Thinner, who is scheduled to perform on Monday night, and took off the title of the clay coat at the Italian Open more than a week ago. Alkaraz defeated the sinner in the final there.
The results on Monday brought Alcaraz 28 wins in the last 30 games at Red Clay, including 7-7 at Roland-Garros a year ago. One of the losses came against Novak Djokovic in a gold medal match at last year’s Parisiolmímímímín, held at the same location as the French Open.
Also on Monday, the two runner-up Casperudo began bidding to reach another Roland Garos Final in a first-round victory of 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 against Spanish qualifiers Albertramos Vinoras.
Former runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas did a light job with Tomas Martin Etcheverry, beating Argentina 7-5, 6-3, 6-4.
Britton Jacob Fianley defeated the 40-year-old Swiss 7-6 (6), 6-3 and 6-2, past three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Warlinka.
Richard Gasquet sent Frenchman Terrence Atmanet 6-2, 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 in his last French opening appearance.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to the report.
