Injury forgotten as Alcaraz savages Wolf

Carlos Alcaraz shrugged off any injury fears as he tamed JJ Wolf to roar into the second round of the French Open.

The world No 3’s participation at Roland Garros was in doubt after the Spaniard pulled out of the Italian Open earlier this month due to an issue with his forearm, but the two-time major winner was in no obvious discomfort as he bared his teeth by dropping just four games against American Wolf.

Wearing a protective sleeve on his right arm, the 21-year-old Wimbledon champion crashed down five aces and clubbed 27 winners in a statement 6-1 6-2 6-1 victory on Court Philippe Chatrier.

He said: “I’m really happy to be back here in Paris to compete again.

“It’s been a very difficult month for me because I love competing.

“I’ve tried everything I could to be at 100% here at Roland Garros to show my best tennis, and I think I did that today.

“I would have loved to have played more matches, but I don’t need too many matches to get to 100%.”

Alcaraz will play Dutch qualifier Jesper De Jong, who beat Britain’s Jack Draper in five sets, in round two.

Russian sixth seed Andrey Rublev needed four sets to see off Taro Daniel of Japan.

The 26-year-old, who is looking to go beyond the quarter-finals of a grand slam for the first time, won 6-2 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 7-5.

Bulgarian 10th seed Grigor Dimitrov had a more straightforward 6-4 6-3 6-4 win over American Aleksandar Kovacevic. However, 17th seed and French No 1 Ugo Humbert bowed out of the competition in four sets, losing 6-4 2-6 6-4 6-3 to Lorenzo Sonego of Italy.