Carlos Alcaraz managed his first win more than a month and a half after earning the No. 1 ranking as the Spaniard held off fellow young gun Jack Draper 3-6, 6-2 7-5 on Monday for a winning start at the Swiss Indoors.
The 19-year-old needed two tournaments to finally earn victory after crashing out in the opening round in Astana, his first match since taking over the top spot from Daniil Medvedev at the end of the US open.
Alcaraz produced a winning performance as he took over the Basel opening day time slot of 10-time champion Roger Federer, the hometown hero at the St Jakobshalle.
The youngster finished his comeback with 39 winners and 34 unforced errors as he dispatched the British hope.
“The beginning of the match it was tough, “I did a lot of mistakes.” the winner said.
“I wanted to play really aggressive on this court. I had to change my tactics a little bit in the second set.
“I knew that Jack is playing great. He is a really dangerous player and I really had to be focused and, of course, never give up.”
Alcaraz sprang into action after losing the opening as he was broken twice; the top seed took a 4-0 lead in the second as the match tightened before he finally levelled.
The seed won the last three games of the deciding set to close out the narrow victory
