Strikingly dressed in a sleeveless shirt and all-red kit, the 18-year-old Spaniard’s first-strike tennis proved too much for Tabilo, who was making his second Grand Slam main-draw appearance. In his competitive debut for 2022, Alcaraz put his game and his physique on full display after an offseason of apparent improvement on both fronts.
It was a matchup between two players sitting at career-highs in the ATP Rankings, with Alcaraz at No. 31—matching his seed—and Tabilo at No. 135. And the match bore out that gap in the rankings, as Alcaraz comfortably advanced.
On Court 7 at Melbourne Park, the pair traded early breaks before the youngster went on a six-game tear to wrestle away control. The Spaniard’s ascent was built on his typically intense aggression from the baseline, but he masterfully mixed in touch and some well-placed returns in building the lead.
Alcaraz faced just one break point in the opening two sets, while breaking five times on the way to a two-set lead.
With his last match coming in his title run at the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan in November, Alcaraz made the perfect start to what could be a big 2022 season. He enters the new campaign on the heels of a breakout year that also saw him reach the US Open quarter-finals, win his first ATP title (Umag) and break into the ATP’s Top 40 for the first time. Alcaraz started the 2021 season just inside the Top 150.
In the top quarter of the Australian Open draw—a section ripe with opportunity due to the absence of Novak Djokovic—Alcaraz will take on either Marton Fucsovics or Dusan Lajovic in Round 2. Looking one step further, No. 7 seed Matteo Berrettini looms as a potential third-round opponent.
Source Tennis – ATP World Tour
