China Open: Alcaraz cruises past Hanfmann to reach second round

Carlos Alcaraz has moved into the second round of the China Open by beating German qualifier Yannick Hanfmann 6-4, 6-3 at the Olympic Green Tennis Center in Beijing.

On his first return to competitive action following a bruising loss to Daniil Medvedev in the semi-finals of the US Open earlier this month, the top seed looked every bit the leader of the pack as he brushed aside the challenge of Hanfmann to breeze into the second round.

“Hopefully I have a lot of years to come here to China. Creating my chapter here in China would be great for me,” Alcaraz said of his debut in the nation. “To finally be able to come here to China and show my tennis in front of the Chinese people is something that I wanted a long time ago and I’m really happy to do it, hopefully the first of many here.”

Alcaraz, currently the World No 2 behind Novak Djokovic, faces an intriguing encounter when he plays another talented youngster in the form of Italian Lorenzo Musetti next.

Beijing ATP500, other first-round results (Olympic Green Tennis Center, hard, USD 3.633.875, most recent results first):

• Jan-Lennard Struff vs. Casper Ruud: friday
• Yoshihito Nishioka beat Juncheng Shang (WC): 5-7, 7-5, 6-1
• Lorenzo Musetti beat Karen Khachanov: 6-3, 1-6, 6-2
• Alexander Zverev (8) beat Diego Schwartzman: 6-7 (2), 6-1, 6-4
• Nicolas Jarry beat Stefanos Tsitsipas (4): 6-4, 6-4
• Andrey Rublev (5) beat Cameron Norrie: 4-6, 6-1, 6-4
• Holger Rune (3) beat Felix Auger-Aliassime: 6-4, 6-4
• Daniil Medvedev (2) beat Tommy Paul: 6-2, 6-1
• Jannik Sinner (6) beat Daniel Evans: 6-4, 6-7 (2), 6-3
• Grigor Dimitrov beat Mackenzie McDonald (WC): 2-6, 7-6 (4), 6-1
• Alex De Minaur beat Andy Murray: 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (6)
• Alejandro Davidovich Fokina beat Yi Zhou (WC): 6-2, 6-2
• Tomas Martin Etcheverry beat Lloyd Harris (Q): 6-7 (5), 7-6 (4), 6-3
• Matteo Arnaldi (Q) beat J.J. Wolf (Q): 6-2, 6-2
• Ugo Humbert beat Lorenzo Sonego: 7-5, 3-6, 6-0