EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsNEW YORK -- The broad smile on the face of Carlos Alcaraz said it all. He is back.After four and a half months away with a serious wrist injury that took him out of the French Open and Wimbledon, the 23-year-old looked almost as if he had never been away, as he wrapped up a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 win over world No. 99 Roman Safiullin to reach the second round of the US Open.Alcaraz partnered with Serena Williams in the mixed doubles event at Flushing Meadows last week, but this was a step up against an opponent who beat Andrey Rublev and Joao Fonseca at Wimbledon earlier this summer, and who took a set off Novak Djokovic in the fourth round. And he came through it impressively, whipping forehands into the corners, tearing around the court like a gazelle, reminding everyone what they have been missing for much of this year."It was a difficult day for me, to be honest, but at the same time, a really beautiful one," Alcaraz said. "Starting the day really, really nervous, thinking, I'm going to make it, I'm going to compete again. I had more nerves than usually but just happy because my goal here is to compete, to enjoy, and let's see how my body's going to react after the matches, after the competition again."Despite his time away, with Jannik Sinner missing with a knee injury, Alcaraz was the pre-tournament favorite with the oddsmakers -- and this performance will cement his status as he tries to win the title for a third time.Safiullin was ranked as high as No. 36 a couple of years ago and tested Alcaraz at times, especially early in the second set, when he took advantage of a dip in concentration to break for a 2-0 lead. But Alcaraz hit back immediately and from then on, there was little doubt about the outcome.As he did in the mixed doubles on Tuesday, Alcaraz wore a long sleeve down his right arm, covering his wrist, which he said was wrapped underneath. His average serve speed was 114 mph, well down on his usual mark, but up from his performance alongside Williams, when he largely kicked in his serve around 100 mph.Crucially, Alcaraz said he is not feeling any pain in his wrist and expects his serve to improve as the tournament progresses."It's pain-free right now," he said later, in a media conference. "I don't know how it looked from outside but from inside, my feeling was that I was hitting normal. I was playing pretty normal, playing my style, and the arm, the wrist, everything felt great."As his confidence in his wrist grows, he's likely to amp up the speed but even with those kinds of numbers, he was far too good for Safiullin, who found the second serve just as hard to deal with as the first."Probably the serve is the shot that I was struggling [with] the most," Alcaraz said. "Depends on the player I'm going to play against. There are some players, they like to return when the serve is coming over 130 [mph]. When you serve a little bit slower than he wants to return, they struggle a little bit. So most of that speed is because of him. It was kind of tactics. But I'm going to try to serve better."Alcaraz played a pretty clean match, hitting 28 winners -- 20 of them on the forehand -- and making just 27 unforced errors. Though he hit just two aces, his record of 59 percent of points won on second serve was especially impressive.One deft half-volley late in the first set had the crowd gasping in awe and when he cranked up his forehand, the noise levels raised even further."I think the level of tennis is going to be better for sure [as the tournament goes on] but I'm really happy with the level I played," he said in his on-court interview. "My first official match for four months, I played really good tennis, really glad about it, but I need more matches. I'm pretty sure I'm going to get better and better every day."I'm most proud mentally. I was able to deal with everything, with nerves, the doubts in my head and keep it going. This is what I'm really proud of."Seeded No. 2, Alcaraz will play Jaime Faria of Portugal in the second round on Wednesday. Favorite or not, he's just trying to keep the smile on his face."I don't know how far I'm going to go in the tournament," he said. "I didn't know if I was going to lose this one, if I'm going to make the second round, final. But what I just really want to do is enjoy every time that I'm going to walk into the court, feeling the energy from the people, feel the competition, waking up, I'm thinking, all right, it's match day. That's what I'm going to do this tournament."
