The Australian Open continues on day two, with Alex de Minaur among the local hopes taking to the court at Melbourne Park.<\/p>\n
If Walton was to advance to the second round of the Australian Open for the first time, he was going to have play at a level well beyond his current ranking of 81.<\/p>\n
Far from being embarrassed by a player who has won six majors, Walton gave a solid account of himself in the 6-3, 7-6 (7-2), 6-2 defeat to Alcaraz on Rod Laver Arena on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n
Rather than be disappointed with his performance, Walton appreciated the opportunity to face the Spaniard, who is tipped to be remembered as one of the greats of the game.<\/p>\n
So, what is it like to play Alcaraz?<\/p>\n
“For Alcaraz, I think he moves a bit different to the rest of the guys on the tour,” Walton said.<\/p>\n
“He has that extra venom on the short balls and on the balls that sit up a little bit more.<\/p>\n
“Anytime he can get set on a forehand, he hits it at a different speed that I’m not used to.<\/p>\n
“Obviously, I don’t get that exposure week in, week out.<\/p>\n
“It’s just really cool to have shared the court on Rod Laver with him tonight.”<\/p>\n
![\"Adam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/834402928acea04ff30965542e9d9b60.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Adam Walton gave a solid account of himself against the world number one. (Getty Images: Shi Tang)<\/p>\n
Walton acknowledged he learned what separates the best from the rest.<\/p>\n
“I played pretty well,” Walton said.<\/p>\n
“I thought I served well. I guess he was a little bit better at some moments than I was.”<\/p>\n
‘A difficult match’<\/p>\n
Alacaraz had defeated Walton when they first met last year, winning in straight sets on grass in the third round of Queen’s.<\/p>\n
There were tricky moments for the reigning French and US Open champion on Sunday, with Walton breaking his serve during the second set.<\/p>\n
![\"Adam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/808c2d916b69cf202a09e194426ea663.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Adam Walton (left) gained the respect of Carlos Alcaraz following their match. (AP: Dita Alangkara)<\/p>\n
After the match, Alcaraz was full of praise for Walton.<\/p>\n
“It was, I would say, a difficult match for me,” Alcaraz said.<\/p>\n
“In the first set, just one break \u2026 I think he was playing really good, really solid. I think he was trying to find the position to attack every time he can.<\/p>\n
“Then, the second set I think he found more spots to be aggressive \u2026 it was then more complicated for me.”<\/p>\n
Alcaraz, who has never been past the quarterfinals at Melbourne Park, now turns his attention to his next opponent, Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann.<\/p>\n
For Walton, he will have to wait another year before he gets the chance to advance from the first round at his home major.<\/p>\n
But he still walks away with memories he will cherish for the rest of his career.<\/p>\n
“To be able to play on a big court against a big player, and especially at home to play on Rod Laver, I think that’s a moment I will never forget,” Walton said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After reaching a career-high ranking of 74 three months ago, Adam Walton had reason to believe he could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[70419,64,63,6571,962,1533,221809,85,747],"class_list":["post-423005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-adam-walton","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-open","tag-carlos-alcaraz","tag-first-round","tag-rod-laver-arena","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}