{"id":160955,"date":"2025-09-26T05:38:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T05:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/160955\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T05:38:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T05:38:09","slug":"why-carlos-alcaraz-was-scared-before-winning-japan-open-first-round-match-in-straight-sets-against-sebastian-baez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/160955\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Carlos Alcaraz was ‘scared’ before winning Japan Open first-round match in straight sets against Sebastian Baez"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> admitted he was “scared” that injury would derail hopes of success at the Japan Open<\/a>, as the world No. 1 shook off an ankle problem during his first-round win in Tokyo on Thursday.<\/p>\n

With the first set level at 2-2 against Argentina’s Sebastian Baez, the top-seeded Spaniard was clearly in pain after twisting his left ankle, and had it heavily strapped up by the physio during a prolonged period of treatment before play resumed.<\/p>\n

To add further complications, upon returning to court, it was not long after Alcaraz had broken Baez to lead 5-4 that play was suspended due to rain, although Alcaraz’s team appeared to signal for another medical time-out just before the weather interruption.<\/p>\n

The US Open <\/a>champion would make light work of his opponent under the roof, however, re-emerging to wrap up the contest with a dominant 6-4 6-2 victory.<\/p>\n

“I was scared too, I’m not going to lie,” six-time Grand Slam winner Alcaraz said afterwards.<\/p>\n

“When I landed on the ankle, I was worried, to be honest, because it didn’t feel good at the beginning. I’m just happy that I was able to play after that and play such good tennis. Let’s see.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s not going to be easy the next day and a half for me. I will try to recover, to do whatever it takes to be ready for the next round.<\/p>\n

“I couldn\u2019t do anything at all during the first five minutes [after] I did it. I was worried that I wouldn\u2019t have the confidence to finish the match, but the physio came and did some tests.<\/p>\n

“It was good I could walk to the bench and that gave me confidence [to continue]. I\u2019m trying to have a warrior mentality in every match, in every aspect of everything.”<\/p>\n

\"picture\"<\/p>\n

Alcaraz facing ‘important’ day of rest after concerning ankle scare – ‘I was worried’<\/p>\n

Video credit: SNTV<\/p>\n

This week, Alcaraz is bidding to become the 13th member of the ATP No. 1 Club<\/a> to capture the title in Tokyo. He enters the tournament with a tour-leading 63 match wins and seven titles in 2025.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old is through to face Zizou Bergs in the last 16 on Saturday. The Belgian defeated the in-form Chengdu champion Alejandro Tabilo 1-6 7-6(2) 7-6(4).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"picture\"<\/p>\n

Watch: Top 5 points from 2025 Laver Cup<\/p>\n

Video credit: TNT Sports<\/p>\n

Casper Ruud overcame the loss of the first set to see off Japanese wildcard Shintaro Mochizuki 4-6 6-1 6-1. The former Nitto ATP Finals runner-up is in line to face Alcaraz in the semi-finals at the ATP 500 event should the pair both progress. <\/p>\n

Rudd – who faces Matteo Berrettini next – said: “My goal is to have a good end of the season, and I haven\u2019t really had that in the past except for Turin, [where] I\u2019ve had some good results. Indoors is not my forte.<\/p>\n

“Let\u2019s see\u2026 It was a little tough to play today, coming a long way from San Francisco [at the Laver Cup], but I\u2019m very happy I was able to overcome it.”<\/p>\n

Jannik Sinner made a winning return to action as he beat Marin Cilic 6-2 6-2 at the China Open.<\/p>\n

The world No. 2 is competing for the first time since his US Open final defeat to Alcaraz.<\/p>\n

Watch and stream top tennis action live and on demand on TNT Sports and discovery+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlos Alcaraz admitted he was “scared” that injury would derail hopes of success at the Japan Open, as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[73193,870,73194,101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-160955","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-atp-tokyo","9":"tag-carlos-alcaraz","10":"tag-sebastian-baez","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tennis","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}