NEW YORK -- Carlos Alcaraz was nervous. He was excited. Best of all, he was pain-free.
Alcaraz beat Roman Safiullin 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 on Monday, showing no problems with the right wrist injury that had sidelined the 23-year-old Spaniard since April.
"I don't know how it looked from outside, but from inside, my feeling was that I was hitting normal," Alcaraz said. "I was playing pretty normal, playing my style, and yeah, the arm, the wrist, everything felt great."
In that case, don't rule out a run at a repeat.
Following fellow two-time US Open champion Aryna Sabalenka onto Arthur Ashe Stadium, the No. 2-seeded Alcaraz appeared more comfortable as the match went on and delivered the all-around game that has made him a fan favorite in New York. He held his hand to his ear to encourage louder cheers and pumped his fist after a pretty volley winner in the final game of the match.
Forced to miss the French Open and Wimbledon, Alcaraz decided he was good enough to come back at the US Open, stepping right back into Grand Slam tennis without a warmup event.
"I had more nerves than usual, but just happy, because, for me, my goal here is to compete, to enjoy, and let's see how my body's going to react after the matches, after the competition again," Alcaraz said.
"I don't know how far I'm going to go in the tournament. I didn't know if I was going to lose this one, if I'm going to make the second round, final. I don't know how far I'm going to go. But what I just really want to do is enjoy every time that I'm going to walk into the court feeling the energy from the people, feel the competition."
No man has won consecutive US Open titles since Roger Federer took five in a row from 2004 to 2008. If Alcaraz stays healthy, the seven-time Grand Slam champion might quickly become a huge favorite with top-ranked Jannik Sinner sidelined because of a knee injury and No. 4 Novak Djokovic losing in the US Open's first round for the first time Sunday.
Also Monday, Stan Wawrinka, the 2016 US Open winner, lost to Matteo Berrettini 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3), 6-0 in the final Grand Slam match before the three-time major champion from Switzerland retires at 41.
"I'm going to miss it for sure. I'm going to miss it big time," Wawrinka said.
Another top-10 seed followed Djokovic out when No. 10 Arthur Fils, coming off the title in Cincinnati, was ousted by Stefanos Tsitsipas 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-1, 6-4. Tsitsipas, who is unseeded at the US Open for the first time, was asked if he can regain the form that catapulted the Greek to the No. 3 ranking and two losses to Djokovic in Grand Slam finals.
"Why not?" Tsitsipas said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
