{"id":169617,"date":"2025-09-26T01:59:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T01:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/169617\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T01:59:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T01:59:09","slug":"carlos-alcaraz-overcomes-injury-scare-to-down-sebastian-baez-on-tokyo-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/169617\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlos Alcaraz overcomes injury scare to down Sebastian Baez on Tokyo debut"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wcl-typoNewsPerex_JFWVr fp-perex_59joV\" data-testid=\"wcl-typoNewsPerex\" itemprop=\"description\">World number one Carlos Alcaraz overcame a foot injury scare to beat Argentina&#8217;s Sebastian Baez 6-4, 6-2 on his Tokyo Open debut on Thursday, extending his sizzling run of form to reach the second round at the ATP 500 event.<\/p>\n<p>The 22-year-old, who reclaimed top spot after winning the US Open earlier this month, called a medical timeout at 2-2 in the opening set after jarring his left foot while stretching for a return.<\/p>\n<p>The Spaniard returned with heavy strapping but played through discomfort, breaking <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flashscore.com\/player\/baez-sebastian\/dd8jLjtO\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-analytics-element=\"ARTICLE_TEXT_LINK\" data-analytics-alias=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Baez<\/a> to edge 5-4 ahead before serving out the set.<\/p>\n<p>After a brief rain suspension, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flashscore.com\/player\/alcaraz-garfia-carlos\/UkhgIFEq\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-analytics-element=\"ARTICLE_TEXT_LINK\" data-analytics-alias=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Alcaraz<\/a> eased past Baez without facing a break <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flashscore.com\/match\/tennis\/alcaraz-garfia-c-UkhgIFEq\/baez-s-dd8jLjtO\/summary\/?mid=KvOr1XRj\" target=\"_blank\" data-analytics-element=\"ARTICLE_TEXT_LINK\" data-analytics-alias=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">to close out the contest in an hour and a half<\/a>. The victory improved his season record to 63-7, having won 48 of his last 51 matches.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was scared. I&#8217;m not going to lie. I felt my ankle and did not feel great. I&#8217;m just happy to be able to play after that,&#8221; Alcaraz said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I will try to be ready for the next match. It was unlucky. In the first five minutes I thought I wouldn&#8217;t continue.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Alcaraz, who is aiming to become only the sixth player to win the Tokyo title while ranked world number one, will next face Belgium&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flashscore.com\/player\/bergs-zizou\/SbeTx1o8\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-analytics-element=\"ARTICLE_TEXT_LINK\" data-analytics-alias=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Zizou Bergs<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World number one Carlos Alcaraz overcame a foot injury scare to beat Argentina&#8217;s Sebastian Baez 6-4, 6-2 on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-169617","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}