• Alcaraz of Spain took a 6-4, 5-3 lead over Mateus Alves.
• Alcaraz, fresh from winning his seventh ATP championship.
• He will then play the winner of Italy’s Fabio Fognini.

Against Mateus Alves of Brazil, world number two Carlos Alcaraz of Spain took a 6-4, 5-3 lead. Play at the ATP Rio Open was suspended on Tuesday due to severe rain.

As he attempts to defend his championship on Brazilian clay, the defending champion Alcaraz held serve in the eighth game of the second set to get close to winning the match.

Fresh after winning his seventh ATP championship in his career at the Argentina Open last week, top seed Alcaraz will complete his match on stadium court on Wednesday in an effort to secure a spot in the round of 16.

The 19-year-old Spaniard would then play the winner of Italy’s Fabio Fognini and Chile’s Tomas Barrios Vera after missing four months of action due to injury before making his 2023 debut last week in Buenos Aires.

As the downpour interrupted his match, Fognini had a 6-2, 5-2 lead.

Alcaraz became the youngest-ever world number one after winning five championships last year, the most notable of which being the US Open, before giving up the position due to injury.

To break for a 4-3 advantage and hold twice to take the opening set, Alcaraz blasted a forehand winner past Alves, who was rated 556th.

In the fifth game of the second set, Alves gave up a break when Alcaraz hit a backhand down the line, but the Brazilian broke back to even the match at 3-3.

A wind- and raindrop-swept Alves’ backhand goal in the final play of the 12-minute seventh game gave Alcaraz the lead and a 4-3 advantage, and the Spaniard held on to get within one game of moving on.

At that point, a series of intense downpours started and forced everyone off the court.

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