PARIS -- Carlos Alcaraz opened his French Open title defense Monday with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 win over Giulio Zeppieri, an Italian qualifier who is ranked 310th.
Alcaraz won all 14 of his service games, saving the three break points he faced, at Court Suzanne-Lenglen.
"It was really, really solid," Alcaraz said. "Really proud about my start."
Elsewhere in the men's bracket, fourth-seeded American Taylor Fritz crashed out of the tournament Monday after a 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 loss to Daniel Altmaier of Germany.
Altmaier broke Fritz's big serve five times at Court Simonne-Mathieu and ended the Californian's 15-match Grand Slam winning streak against players ranked outside the top 50.
Alcaraz is seeded No. 2 behind Jannik Sinner, who was scheduled to play Monday night, and is coming off a clay-court title at the Italian Open a little more than a week ago. Alcaraz beat Sinner in the final there.
Monday's result gave Alcaraz 28 wins in his past 30 matches on red clay, including going 7-for-7 a year ago at Roland-Garros. One of the losses came against Novak Djokovic in the gold medal match at last year's Paris Olympics, held at the same site as the French Open.
Also Monday, two-time runner-up Casper Ruud began his bid to reach another Roland Garros final with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 first-round victory over Spanish qualifier Albert Ramos-Vinolas.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Related News
11 Aug, 2025
RCB Pacer Yash Dayal Banned From Playing . . .
27 Apr, 2025
Today's political cartoons - April 27, 2 . . .
01 Jul, 2025
Years after learning soccer in their bas . . .
28 Jul, 2025
Son Of Alleged Would-Be Trump Assassin J . . .
10 Jul, 2025
Reason for young pilot’s death revealed
20 Aug, 2025
Alicante firefighters join fight in Cast . . .
02 Jun, 2025
Renée Victor, Actress Who Voiced Abuelit . . .
01 Aug, 2025
Car owners could face large bills for re . . .