Carlos Alcaraz has quickly become a favorite at Roland Garros. On Day 1, he played like it

WATCH: Carlos Alcaraz continues his strong play on clay at Roland Garros

In 2021, when Carlos Alcaraz exited Roland Garros after a straight-set, third-round loss to unseeded Jan-Lennard Struff, the Spaniard was just another young hopeful on a tour that had seen dozens of young hopefuls come and go over the last decade. Now, just 12 months later, that result feels as if it happened in another era entirely.

On Sunday, a 19-year-old Alcaraz walked back into Roland Garros not only as a seed and a Top 10 player, but as the co-favorite, with Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, to win the tournament. It was the fastest ascension on the men’s side since Nadal won the title, also at 19, in his first trip to the French Open. Naturally, Alcaraz’s opening match, against Juan Ignacio Londero, would be in the main stadium, Court Philippe Chatrier.

How would Alcaraz handle the moment, and a court he had never played on? The players who preceded him did their best to keep us in suspense. Ons Jabeur and Magda Linette went deep into a third set. Felix Auger-Aliassime lost the first two sets to Juan Pablo Varilles, before coming back to win in five. By the time Alcaraz and Londero took the court, it was past 7:00 P.M., and a little of the anticipatory excitement for the moment had faded over the course of the long afternoon.

But like his fellow Spaniard Nadal, Alcaraz doesn’t need to draw any energy from a crowd or the atmosphere in a stadium; he generates it all on his own. He bounced at the net during the coin toss like the boxer he can resemble, and tore back to the baseline to get the warm-up started when it was over. If there were any nerves or doubts—and surely there were a couple lodged somewhere—he covered them with his zeal for the fight.

For the next two hours, Alcaraz reminded us of the thoroughness of his talent. Watching him across the net from Londero, a dyed-in-the-wool dirtballer who hasn’t played a match on a surface other than clay this year, it was especially easy to see what elevates Alcaraz above the norm. Londero could trade ground strokes with Alcaraz; he could get to 4-4 in the first set against him; he could win a couple of service games at love. But whenever Alcaraz needed a point, he had a way to get it, and a shot that Londero couldn’t match.

Down 0-15 on his serve at 2-2 in the first set, Alcaraz upped the speed on his forehand to win the next two points, and held with a perfect approach shot-volley combination. When Alcaraz fell behind 15-30 on his serve at 3-3, he hit two bomb serves that Londero couldn’t handle. When Alcaraz needed a point to break serve and close out the first set, he got it by going higher, deeper, and loopier with his strokes; the shift in trajectory drew an error that put him at set point. Later, when Londero tried to open up and power a crosscourt forehand for a winner, Alcaraz turned it into a bullet forehand winner of his own.

Alcaraz was, understandably, a little tight to start what eventually became a 6-4, 6-2, 6-0 win. As the scores show, he gradually loosened up, opened up, and grew more vocal and aggressive after he grabbed the lead. Once he had that lead, he didn’t let Londero hang around. Up 3-0 in the third, Alcaraz stayed patient as Londero saved half a dozen break points. Rather than let the game go and move on, Alcaraz stuck with it and earned the match-clinching second break.

There will be tougher tests ahead, perhaps from his veteran countryman Albert Ramos-Viñolas in the next round, or from the last man to beat him, Sebastian Korda. But 12 months after he left as just another young hopeful, Alcaraz played the way favorites are supposed to play in their first-round matches at the Grand Slams.