China Open roundup: Carlos Alcaraz, Andrey Rublev, Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev all begin campaign with wins

Carlos Alcaraz made a winning return to action on Friday at the China Open. The 20-year-old Spaniard defeated qualifier Yannick Hanfmann 6-4, 6-3 at the Beijing ATP 500 to begin his late-season charge to return to the top of the ATP Rankings.

He began the Asian swing behind World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the ATP Live Race To Turin, but could close that gap to 315 points by winning his first title since Wimbledon in Beijing.

“Hopefully I have a lot of years to come here to China. Creating my chapter here in China would be great for me,” Alcaraz said after receiving a warm welcome on his debut in the nation. “To finally be able to come here to China and show my tennis in front of the Chinese people is something that I wanted a long time ago and I’m really happy to do it, hopefully the first of many here.”

“I’m really happy to be able to win this match in straight sets,” Alcaraz assessed. “Yannick’s playing great. He’s a really dangerous player, big shots. He was playing big bombs in this match so I had to be really focussed, trying to not let him dominate the match.

“I tried to be really focussed on every part of my game. I have to improve a little bit so I’m really happy to do it and have another chance to be better in the next round.”

The Spaniard will next face Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti, a 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 winner against Karen Khachanov earlier on Friday. Khachanov saw his perfect start to the Asian swing end after he won the Zhuhai title on Tuesday, beating Yoshihito Nishioka in the final.

Also in the top quarter of the draw, Casper Ruud closed Friday’s play with a 7-6(5), 6-3 win against Jan-Lennard Struff. The seventh seed will next meet Argentina’s Tomas Martin Etcheverry, with the winner of that match to take on Alcaraz or Musetti. Norway’s Ruud is now 9-9 this season on hard courts.

Andrey Rublev was also a Friday winner in Beijing. The fifth seed earned a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 victory against Cameron Norrie, setting up a second-round meeting with Ugo Humbert. Rublev improved to 3-2 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series against Great Britain’s Norrie with the result, gaining revenge after a defeat in Indian Wells in their most recent meeting.