Rome Masters: Alcaraz continues ominous clay-court form, through to third round

Second seed Carlos Alcaraz picked up in Rome where he left off in Madrid, advancing to the third round by defeating compatriot Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-4, 6-1 at the Foro Italico on Saturday.

It is his tenth win on the bounce against other players from Spain, and perhaps more significantly he remains unbeaten so far during this clay-court swing. More than that, he has dropped just two sets over the course of Barcelona, Madrid and now Rome.

The match was the 20-year-old’s first in Rome, and comes just six days after he won his fourth Masters 1000 title.

Alcaraz, who will return to the ranking of world No 1 after the conclusion of this tournament and go into Roland-Garros as top seed, will face the winner of the match between Czech Jiri Lehecka, the No 32 seed, and Hungarian qualifier Fabian Marozsan next.

In the previous round of the Italian Open, Ramos-Vinolas, ranked No 72, edged out Italian wildcard Francesco Passaro (4-6, 6-1, 6-4).

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Rome Masters, other second-round results (Foro Italico, clay, EUR 7.705.780, most recent results first):

• Lorenzo Musetti vs. Matteo Arnaldi
• Yannick Hanfmann vs. Taylor Fritz
• Emil Ruusuvuori vs. Daniil Medvedev
• David Goffin vs. Alexander Zverev
• Roberto Bautista Agut vs. Marco Cecchinato
• Daniel Altmaier vs. Frances Tiafoe
• Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Nuno Borges
• Jiri Lehecka vs. Fabian Marozsan
• Lorenzo Sonego vs. Yoshihito Nishioka
• Guido Pella vs. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina
• Hubert Hurkacz vs. J.J. Wolf: saturday
• Bernabe Zapata Miralles (31) beat Jason Kubler: 6-4, 6-1
• Roberto Carballes Baena vs. Daniel Evans: saturday
• Borna Coric vs. Thiago Monteiro: saturday
• Andrey Rublev (6) beat Alex Molcan: 6-3, 6-4
• Casper Ruud (4) beat Arthur Rinderknech: 6-4, 6-0
• Holger Rune (7) beat Arthur Fils (Q): 6-3, 6-3
• Novak Djokovic (1) beat Tomas Martin Etcheverry: 7-6 (5), 6-2
• Alexander Bublik beat Ben Shelton (28): 6-4, 1-6, 6-2
• Cristian Garin beat Tommy Paul (16): 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
• Fabio Fognini (WC) beat Miomir Kecmanovic (30): 6-3, 7-6 (6)
• Gregoire Barrere beat Karen Khachanov (11): 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (4)
• Laslo Djere beat Botic van de Zandschulp (23): 6-2, 6-4
• Roman Safiullin (Q) beat Sebastian Korda (22): 6-2, 7-6 (5)
• Grigor Dimitrov (26) beat Stan Wawrinka: 6-4, 7-6 (3)
• Alexander Shevchenko (LL) beat Sebastian Baez: 6-3, 6-4
• Marton Fucsovics beat Alex De Minaur (17): 6-3, 6-4
• Jannik Sinner (8) beat Thanasi Kokkinakis (Q): 6-1, 6-4
• Francisco Cerundolo (24) beat Yibing Wu: 4-6, 6-2, 6-3
• Alexei Popyrin (Q) beat Felix Auger-Aliassime (10): 6-4, 4-6, 7-5
• Cameron Norrie (13) beat Alexandre Muller (Q): 6-2, 6-3