Alcaraz v Safiullin – Olympic men's singles tennis LIVE

Well, that is a major surprise, but most welcome from Safiullin’s point of view.

Alcaraz’s purple patch goes AWOL as he struggles to find the range that was making life so easy for him.

A forehand long and a miscue into the net tee up triple break point for Safiullin and the AIN (Individual Neutral Athlete) converts to love with a sumptuous drop shot that out-drop shots the drop-shot King!

Its winner after winner and gasp of astonishment after gasp of astonishment as Carlitos continues to tear Roman to shreds.

A booming forehand down concludes another game and a break to 15 as the 21-year-old notches up some early insurance.

Talk about concluding a love hold with an emphatic full stop.

Alcaraz follows up a deep slice to pen his opponent in his left wing with a scorching forehand winner down the line to consolidate with the minimum of fuss.

That’s an early disaster for Roman.

He’s coasting at 40-0 up but throws in a double fault that is the catalyst for Alcaraz to turn on the after-burners.

The Spaniard is a blur of speed and energy as he turns defence into attack to pick up a drop volley and sizzle away a forehand pass.

Safiullin then adds pressure to his own shoulders with a backhand that clips the tape and flies wide to flip the game at deuce.

He continues to unravel from there and tamely fires into the net on the first break point of the match to give Spain the instant advantage.

Safiullin will serve first.

Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti has just beaten USA’s Taylor Fritz 6-4 7-5 in a repeat of his quarter-final win over the American at Wimbledon earlier this month.

Alcaraz continues his bid for double Gold today with this third-round match in the singles followed by a 18:00 BST date with Rafael Nadal as they meet No.4 seeds Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek in the men’s doubles quarter finals on Chatrier later.

The American No.9 seed has just beaten Frenchman Corentin Moutet in straight sets to disappoint the home crowd on Lenglen.

Hello and welcome to LIVE updates of the men’s tennis singles clash between No.2 seed Carlos Alcaraz and Roman Safiullin.

The players are due on Court Suzanne-Lenglen shortly.

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