Carlos Alcaraz, return to the field lasts just under an hour

Sharp defeat for Carlos Alcaraz as he returns from injury.

It lasted exactly 59 minutes for Carlos Alcaraz’s first match after 43 days away from the courts due to injury. In fact, the ATP number one ranked player was narrowly defeated by Andrey Rublev in the semifinals of the Mudabala World Tennis Championship, an exhibition tournament being held in Abu Dhabi, with the Russian able to prevail 6-2, 6-1.

Alcaraz was never in the match from a scoring standpoint: four games lost on his own serve, seven break points wasted. From a world ranking point of view, however, it is an irrelevant knockout, since it is a tournament that is not part of the world tour.

However, Alcaraz’s presence in front of the Abu Dhabi audience is also guaranteed for Sunday: in fact, a ‘final match’ for third place is scheduled against Casper Ruud, who in turn was defeated by Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas (6-2, 6-2) in the other semifinal.