Carlos Alcaraz \u2014 with a new buzz cut \u2014 was a buzzsaw against Reilly Opelka, cutting down the huge American 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 in the first round of the U.S. Open.<\/p>\n
As it turns out, the close-cropped look was a familial fluke more than a fashion statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just wanted to get a haircut and suddenly my brother just misunderstood the machine. The only way to fix it is just to shave it off. And it just became this haircut. To be honest, it\u2019s not that good,\u201d said Alcaraz, quickly correcting himself to \u201c[I mean] it\u2019s not that bad, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n
Freudian slip. <\/p>\n
Carlos Alcaraz hits a return to Reilly Opelka during Night two of the US Open Tennis Championships at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Monday August 25, 2025. JASON SZENES\/ NY POST<\/p>\n
But the Spaniard had no slips on the court.<\/p>\n
Alcaraz hit 23 winners against just 17 unforced errors. <\/p>\n
He won a stellar 86 percent of his first service points against Opelka \u2014 one of the best servers on the entire tour \u2014 and didn\u2019t lose a single break point.<\/p>\n
Asked how the new haircut impacted his game, Alcaraz flashed a smile and replied, \u201cI think I\u2019m faster.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carlos Alcaraz celebrates after his win at U.S. Open on Monday night. JASON SZENES\/ NY POST<\/p>\n
The five-time Grand Slam champion was just agile enough and skilled enough to have answers against the hard-serving Opelka.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, today was really difficult to get the good rhythm,\u201d said Alcaraz. \u201cOpelka is such a tough opponent, big serve. He doesn\u2019t let you go on rallies. It was difficult for me to get the good rhythm and the good feeling from the baseline.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I just tried to return well, playing as long a point as I can and trying to get the good rhythm and the good feeling. So it was a difficult first round, but overall I just really happy with the way that I managed everything that I played today. Good return, good point from the baseline, good serve. So I just wanted to keep it going.<\/p>\n
Reilly Opelka hits a return to Carlos Alcaraz during Night two of the US Open Tennis Championships at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Monday August 25, 2025 in Queens. JASON SZENES\/ NY POST<\/p>\n
\u201c[Tuesday] I will try to practice a little bit to get more rhythm. The next round is going to be with more rhythm, playing more point from the baseline. So let\u2019s see if I\u2019m going to get there. But right now I\u2019m just really happy with the way that I\u2019m feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 6-foot-11 Opelka topped 140 mph on his serve, and hit 14 aces.<\/p>\n
But Alcaraz was simply too good. <\/p>\n
He advanced to face Mattia Bellucci in the second round. <\/p>\n
He\u2019s never faced the 24-year-old Italian.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlos Alcaraz \u2014 with a new buzz cut \u2014 was a buzzsaw against Reilly Opelka, cutting down the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[2073,24000,99,428,14687],"class_list":{"0":"post-111594","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-carlos-alcaraz","9":"tag-reilly-opelka","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-us-open-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}