The best player in the world, Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, beat Jeremy Chardy easily in the first round. This was Chardy’s last singles match.
Alcaraz, who won the US Open last year, won 6-0, 6-2, and 7-5 on Court One in less than two hours.
The opponent, who was 36 years old, could only play seven games against the 20-year-old.
Chardy made it to the last 16 in 2014, and he has already said that Wimbledon will be the last singles event he plays in.
Alcaraz said, “I played really well, and at the start of the first set, he was in a little bit of trouble.”
“I’m very happy to play at such a high level and to have made it this far. It’s beautiful to play here, and I’m glad that so many people are cheering me on.”
Chardy was there for the 14th time. At his best, he was ranked 25th in the world.
Chardy told the ATP Tour website before the match, “He’s from a different generation than me because I’m almost twice as old as him.”
“This is an emotional week for me because it will be my last singles tournament, so getting to play against him is a gift.”
Alcaraz wants to be the third youngest player in the Open Era to win the men’s singles title at Wimbledon, after Boris Becker at age 17 in 1985 and Bjorn Borg at age 20 in 1976.
In the first two sets, he almost never made a mistake, while Chardy struggled to handle his opponent’s serve and made a number of crucial double faults.
Alcaraz won the first set in just 22 minutes, and when he broke Chardy’s serve in the first game of the second set, the win seemed like a done deal.
Chardy finally got a point when he won the fourth game of set two, which was met with a great cheer from the crowd on Court One.
Chardy got some pride back in the third set after losing the first two. In the sixth game of the third set, he broke Alcaraz’s serve, but the Spaniard quickly got the match back on serve.
Then, in the 11th game, Alcaraz broke and served out the win to set up a second-round match against either Alexandre Muller, who is ranked 84th in the world, or Arthur Rinderknech, who is ranked 82nd.
