Alcaraz blasts into week two at Australian Open, as Shang retires due to injury in third set

In his first ever meeting against a player younger than him, Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz fired past 18-year-old Chinese Juncheng Shang, 6-1, 6-1, 1-0 RET to book his spot in the round of 16 at the Australian Open for the first time.

Shang suffered with a right leg injury for much of the match, and eventually pulled the plug on his attempt to become the first Chinese man to ever reach the round of 16 at a Grand Slam.

“It’s not the way that anybody wants to move on,” Alcaraz said. “I want to wish him a speedy recovery, he’s an amazing player, he started the year unbelievable, and I was looking forward to playing this match, but unfortunately he wasn’t in as good as shape as possible.”

Alcaraz was all over the world No 140 from start to finish, and due to Shang’s injury he only needed to spend 66 minutes on court. He hit nine winners against 12 unforced errors and broke Shang’s serve six times from 12 opportunities.

“I felt really comfortable moving, hitting the ball,” Alcaraz said.

The Spaniard is thrilled to be back in Australia after missing the 2023 edition due to injury.

“I was watching the matches from the couch,” he said. “It’s the first time that I moved to the second week in Australia. It feels special, I watch this tournament every year, coming to this tournament this year I wanted to improve the result that I did in 2022. I did it, now it’s time to keep going, to play better and better.”

The 20-year-old Spaniard will play Serb Miomir Kecmanovic next.

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Carlos Alcaraz beat Frenchman Richard Gasquet (7-6 (5), 6-1, 6-2) and edged out Italian Lorenzo Sonego (6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-3, 7-6 (3)) ahead of his victory.

In the previous rounds, the 18-year-old Chinese won against American Mackenzie McDonald (6-3, 1-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2) and edged out Indian qualifier Sumit Nagal (2-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4).

Melbourne (Grand Slam), other third-round results (Melbourne Park, hard, USD 58.910.000, most recent results first):

• Alexander Zverev vs. Alex Michelsen
• Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Daniil Medvedev
• Cameron Norrie vs. Casper Ruud
• Grigor Dimitrov vs. Nuno Borges
• Arthur Cazaux vs. Tallon Griekspoor: saturday
• Ugo Humbert vs. Hubert Hurkacz: saturday
• Miomir Kecmanovic beat Tommy Paul (14): 6-4, 3-6, 2-6, 7-6 (7), 6-0
• Andrey Rublev (5) beat Sebastian Korda (29): 6-2, 7-6 (6), 6-4
• Alex De Minaur (10) beat Flavio Cobolli (Q): 6-3, 6-3, 6-1
• Novak Djokovic (1) beat Tomas Martin Etcheverry (30): 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (2)
• Adrian Mannarino (20) beat Ben Shelton (16): 7-6 (4), 1-6, 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-4
• Stefanos Tsitsipas (7) beat Luca Van Assche: 6-3, 6-0, 6-4
• Taylor Fritz (12) beat Fabian Marozsan: 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2
• Jannik Sinner (4) beat Sebastian Baez (26): 6-0, 6-1, 6-3
• Karen Khachanov (15) beat Tomas Machac: 6-4, 7-6 (4), 4-6, 7-6 (5)