Carlos Alcaraz made his debut in Madrid against Emil Ruusuvuori looking to defend his title, on Friday. He came out a little nervous looking or perhaps becoming settled into the Madrid clay courts. Ruusuvuori had previously defeated Alcaraz in Miami back in 2021, but Alcaraz would take care of business 2-6 6-4 6-2.

The big-hitting Finnish rode his serve in the first set and handled the Spaniard’s serve to take it fairly routinely. But in the second set, the match turned after Ruusuvuori had a chance to break serve at 2-3. Feeding off that momentum Alcaraz rolled through the balance of the set. He then rode the wave throughout the third set taking the match in front of supportive crowd.

The world number two went on the defeat Grigor Dimitrov in the second round.

Meanwhile, it didn’t take long for an upset to be recorded as Casper Ruud fell to Matteo Arnaldi. Arnaldi came through the qualifiers to defeat the world number four 6-3 6-4. The Italian struck precise groundstrokes and played with a confidence despite being ranked 105 in the world.

Elsewhere, Taylor Fritz was pushed in his first-round match as he defeated Christopher O’Connell 7-6 (13-11) 6-4. O’Connell used his serve as a weapon to gain early momentum in the match. But the big-serving American would not be outdone and scored big points behind his huge serve. After a tough opening set, the second set came much easier for Fritz.