At the beginning, Francisco Cerundolo was having his way with Carlos Alcaraz. He was forcing the Spaniard to play the angles, and Cerundolo was not missing. Meanwhile, Alcaraz had far more unforced errors than the winners. Cerundolo was playing well, but Alcaraz was helping him quite a bit.
Maybe the Spaniard just needed a set to warm up, though. He had struggled in his only previous Monte-Carlo Masters, losing in the second round of 2022 after getting a first-round bye. The ATP No. 3 had missed the last two years of the tournament. In other words, he had no prior success at the event to know he could win.
Francisco Cerundolo has also had an excellent year so far. He has as many victories as any on tour and is working his way up into the top 20. Alcaraz was not losing to someone few had ever heard of. Cerundolo was a worthy foe.
Carlos Alcaraz takes three sets to defeat Francisco Cerundolo at the Monte-Carlo Masters
If the Spaniard did not know how good the Argentine could be (even after beating him at Indian Wells in March), he learned it in the first set, and he took his vengeance out in the second set as Alcaraz won the set 6-0. He was making the kind of shots that few other players ever could do with such consistency. His drop-shot was as masterful as his bombastic forehand.
His return was overwhelming. In set two, Cerundolo won just 10 percent of his first serves and had two winners to 10 unforced errors. Even had Alcaraz not suddenly been playing so brilliantly, the Argentine would have let him back in the match.
The third set appeared to be simply a formality. Alcaraz had gotten his bad tennis out of the way, and while Cerundolo is an ascending player, he will never have the skills that Alcaraz has when he is playing his best. This is true even on clay, which is Cerundolo's best surface. It might also be Alcaraz's best, too.
Alcaraz got another break early in the third set to lead 3-1, and the match was, for all intents and purposes, done. The Spaniard took the match 3-6 6-0 6-1. He will next play Daniel Altmaier in the third round on Thursday.