![\"tennis](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Pro-Player-Gear-610X150-03.jpg\")
<\/a>tennis express pro player gear<\/p>\nForty-eight hours after Alcaraz squandered break leads in both sets bowing to rival Jannik Sinner in a Monte-Carlo final defeat that cost him his crown and world No. 1 ranking, Alcaraz was man on a mission today.<\/p>\n
Riding a streak of seven straight clay-court finals, Alcaraz launched his quest for a third Barcelona title and to regain the world No. 1 ranking.<\/p>\n
If Alcaraz, who lost to Holger Rune in the 2025 Barcelona final, takes the title on Sunday, he will surpass Sinner and regain the top spot.<\/p>\n
Though his first practice session in Barcelona came just this morning, Alcaraz said he found his comfort level quickly in front of supportive home fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels great to be back to get another win in Barcelona in front of my people, in front of my everything,\u201d Alcaraz said. \u201cI miss playing in Barcelona. This morning was my first practice here totally different conditions than Monte-Carlo.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall, [I am] really happy with the way I\u2019m playing. I ended up [playing great tennis. Hopefully, the next round it\u2019s going to get better and we\u2019ll see how it\u2019s going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is Alcaraz\u2019s 16th consecutive victory at the ATP 500 level.<\/p>\n
Reigning Roland Garros, US Open and Australian Open champion Alcaraz improved to 22-3 on the season.<\/p>\n
As for the wrist issue, Alcaraz said it\u2019s not unusual to feel pain after his recent heavy red-clay workload.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are discomforts that come out seeing the few days I have had of recovery in some movement that is not usual,\u201d Alcaraz told Spanish media in Barcelona. \u201cI went more relaxed to the second set. Juanjo, my physio, will see me, but they are discomforts that I have had before and that did not get worse.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy idea is to be in the best possible condition for Thursday\u2019s [match].\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The second-ranked Spaniard set up an intriguing round-of-16 match vs. Czechia\u2019s Tomas Machac.<\/p>\n
Olympic mixed doubles champion Machac rallied past Argentinean Sebastian Baez 2-6, 6-4, 6-1. It was Machac\u2019s second clay-court win over Baez in as many meetings and sets up a third showdown between Alcaraz and the Czech, who have split two prior meetings.<\/p>\n
Shaking off a disappointing Monte-Carlo final defeat on Sunday, Alcaraz started his Barcelona return under break-point stress but turned it on as the match progressed winning eight of the last nine points played on the Virtanen serve in closing today\u2019s sweep.<\/p>\n
Facing triple break point in the fifth game, Alcaraz defused danger by deconstructing his opponent\u2019s forehand. Alcaraz denied all three break points drawing a few forehand errors in holding for a 3-2 first-set lead.<\/p>\n
Though he was pushed to deuce in his first three service games, and faced break points in two of those games, Alcaraz began to find his range.<\/p>\n
Targeting the Virtanen forehand, Alcaraz began cracking even more severe cross-court forehands provoking a series of forehand errors from the qualifier, whose running forehand appears to be a work in progress.<\/p>\n
Alcaraz drew another forehand miscue to take a onet-set lead.<\/p>\n
Seventy-minutes into the match, Alcaraz forced Virtanen backhand behind the baseline with the depth of his drives then detonated a crosscourt forehand provoking the error to break for 3-1. Alcaraz worked through a demanding deuce hold to extend his lead to 6-4, 4-1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Richard Pagliaro | Tuesday, April 14, 2026Photo credit: Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters Facebook Transforming Barcelona\u2019s crushed red brick…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-606743","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606743","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=606743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}