Carlos Alcaraz apologised to his supporters following his second round victory over Mattia Bellucci at the US Open. The Spaniard impressed with an effortless success to put the game to bed in just one hour and 36 minutes and set up a clash with Luciano Darderi in the third round.

Alcaraz didn't allow Bellucci a chance to even get a foothold in the match en route to his win, cruising to a 6-1 6-0 6-3 success, and the rapid nature of his win prompted the world No. 2 to apologise for how hastily he got the job done on the night.

Speaking after the win, Alcaraz was informed of how his fans would have been hoping to see him play for longer than just over an hour and a half, to which he replied: "I've got to say sorry to the people. I've got to do my job."

Alcaraz has arrived at Flushing Meadows with a point to prove after being dumped out of the US Open in the second round last year by Botic Van De Zandschulp, and he is keen to right the wrongs of that disappointing showing 12 months ago.

The 2022 champion is in flying form at present, though he conceded that Bellucci was not at his very best on the day. He said: "I think I played a really solid match today. You know, I just set up some goals at the beginning of the match, which I think I did pretty well.

"Some things that I have to improve that I didn't do as good as I wanted, but just in general, really happy. He played not his best match, I know it, but in general I'm happy to get through."

Alcaraz was then asked whether he feels this is his most consistent run of high-quality performances, to which he replied: "Yeah, I think so. I am playing such great tennis tournament after tournament and just feeling that I'm able to perform really good, you know, in every match.

"Obviously I have my up and downs. I have matches that I don't have or I don't feel really good, but I just trying to survive those matches and to give myself another opportunity in the next round. "Which I learned from this period, just about I took some days between swings or between tournaments, which helped me a lot to come to another swing or to another tournament with a lot of energy, fresh mentally, just to perform at my best. I think I've done it really well."