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Melbourne (Australia), Jan 19 (EFE).- Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz will seek to qualify for the first time in his career to the round of 16 of the Australian Open against the young 18-year-old Chinese left-hander Jenchung Shang, who will play for the first time in his race a third round of a ‘slam’.
The match was scheduled in the second shift of the morning screening of the Rod Laver Arena center court, which will take place around 03:30 GMT (4:30 in Spain).
Alcaraz completed a new training session during midday this Friday, on court 17 of Melbourne Park, together with fellow left-hander Facundo Díaz, to finalize the details for an unprecedented clash against the great hope Shang, who has all the ballots to become the first Chinese tennis player with options to achieve important results on the ATP circuit.
The second ranked player in the world placed emphasis on his weighted cross forehand, which would carry his opponent’s backhand and give him the initiative to close the points, as well as on the serve.
Alcaraz stressed after his first victory in three sets against the French Richard Gasquet that it was one of the pending tasks and in the second leg of his duel with the Italian Lorenzo Sonego he managed to improve this statistic by going from 73% to 78% of points obtained with first.
He also corrected throughout the clash against Sonego the mistakes during the tie-break of a second set that fell on the transalpine side and that were also one of the pending issues in a great 2023 in which he debuted as Wimbledon champion .
For his part, Shang received an invitation to compete in the oceanic slam and it will be the first time in his career that he competes in a third round in a major event after beating the American Mackenzie McDonald and the Indian Nagal in previous rounds.
The 18-year-old began playing ATP rank competitions last year, at just 17 years old when he fell in that second round of the Australian Open against the American Frances Tiafoe and obtained his best result in the Chicago tournament after falling in semi-finals against Alex Michelsen.
Alcaraz has a record of 24 victories and six defeats against left-handed tennis players and the last one came after losing in the final in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in 2023 against the British Cameron Norrie.
The Murcian will have extra responsibility after his compatriot Paula Badosa said goodbye to the competition in the third round against the American Amanda Anisimova, and left the young man from El Palmar as the only Spaniard alive in the individual draws.
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