Carlos Alcaraz has always been a player who can win in different ways. He can grind from the baseline, flatten a forehand, or drop a delicate shot out of nowhere. But his opening game in Shanghai revealed a different side of him. It revealed his ability to make quick changes in his game plan when something is not working.

Alcaraz beat Juan Manuel Cerundolo 6-3, 6-3 on Saturday night to reach the third round of the Shanghai Masters. The match lasted for merely 66 minutes, and it extended his winning streak to seven matches. He hit 24 winners and won 13 of 20 points at the net, a 65 per cent success rate, an impressive number for a player who is best known for baseline power. And his approach was no more than a mid-match adjustment.

“It wasn’t the plan at the beginning,” Alcaraz stated after the victory. “I tried to be ready and get used to the conditions. The speed of the court is very fast, which I like. Thanks to that, I started not very well, not getting the rhythm. So I tried to do something different.”

Alcaraz didn’t wait for the rallies to come. The Spaniard initiated the forward approach and used the fast surface to put Cerundolo under pressure. The surface is the quickest Shanghai has offered since 2017, with a Court Pace Index of 42.26. And it took him merely around twenty minutes to adapt as he played indoors after rain struck the city, and against a left-handed opponent.

As for the Argentine, he had a good reason to believe he could cause an upset. The 24-year-old had beaten Jannik Sinner in five sets at Roland Garros this year, and he was trying to become the first player since Andrey Rublev in 2024 to beat both Sinner and Alcaraz in one season.

Alcaraz, though, didn’t let it happen, as he made his third appearance in Shanghai after having fallen to Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in the fourth round in 2023 and Czech Tomas Machac in the quarterfinals in 2024.

“Starting a tournament is always difficult, it’s even harder when you haven’t had enough time to adapt to the new conditions, which were completely different in Tokyo,” Alcaraz added.

The previous day, Novak Djokovic lost to Hubert Hurkacz on Friday and said he had not adjusted to the speed of the courts. A day later, Alcaraz had to deal with the same situation, but he figured out how to make it work in his favor. The ability to read a match and change course is what makes him so dangerous and further sets up a larger story this week in Shanghai. The win also came with a moustache that he plans to keep for the week, after a team bet made before Tokyo.

Alcaraz targets a missing Masters 1000 trophy in Shanghai

Shanghai is one of just three Masters 1000 events that Alcaraz has not won – the other two are Canada and Paris. He is also chasing a piece of history here, as no Spanish man has ever won the tournament. So far, his best finish has been that quarter-final in 2024, and this year’s early adjustment is an encouraging sign. 

Alcaraz will now face Zizou Bergs in the round of 32. The two players have met once, and that also came in last year’s Asian swing at the Japan Open, a round-of-16 encounter which the former world No. 1 won in straight sets. A fourth-round meeting with Valentin Vacherot could follow. Vacherot is the reigning champion, and he won last year’s title as a qualifier ranked No. 204, beating his cousin Arthur Rinderknech in the final. It’s the kind of story that proves that surprises are possible in Shanghai.

The second seed has already negated one surprise, which was the surface, and now looks forward to solving the next puzzle that comes his way.