Carlos Alcaraz said his new moustached look is here to stay for the duration of the Shanghai Masters, having opened his campaign with a straight-sets win over Juan Manuel Cerundolo. 

Alcaraz eased to a 6-3 6-3 victory in just 66 minutes on Saturday, maintaining his momentum after winning the Japan Open title on his return from injury.

A single break six games in was enough to hand the Spaniard the first set, and he bookended the second by breaking in the first game and the last, earning a seventh straight victory.

But rather than Alcaraz's performance, the focus of his post-match interview was his new moustache, which he said was the result of a bet made with his team in Tokyo.

"It's going to stay for the week," Alcaraz said of his new look. "I always wanted to step on court at least once with a moustache. 

"Before Tokyo with the team, we said, 'If I win the tournament, we all have to do the moustache and play Shanghai with it'. We're having fun with it. It came to stay."

A lifelong dream realised  @carlosalcaraz explains the inspiration behind his new Shanghai look. @SH_RolexMasters | #RolexShanghaiMasters https://t.co/zby0l5zOB3

— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 10, 2026

Zizou Bergs will be Alcaraz's next-round opponent, while several other big names also avoided upsets.

Taylor Fritz overcame Matteo Arnaldi 7-5 6-4, Casper Ruud beat China's Yunchaokete Bu 6-1 7-6 (7-2) and will face Learner Tien next, and Arthur Fils was a 6-3 6-4 winner against Pavel Kotov.

Felix Auger-Aliassime, Daniil Medvedev and Rafael Jodar were all taken to three sets, but each of them emerged victorious. 

Fourth seed Auger-Aliassime beat Camilo Ugo Carabelli, Medvedev came from a set down to eliminate Jan-Lennard Struff, and Jodar overcame Thiago Agustin Tirante to tee up an intriguing meeting with Jiri Lehecka.

Alcaraz backs up Tokyo title

Alcaraz is bidding to become just the third player to win the title in either Tokyo or Beijing before backing it up with glory in Shanghai in the same season, after Andy Murray (2011, 2016) and Novak Djokovic (2012-13, 2015).

And he started well here, extending his winning streak in opening matches at ATP Tour-level events to 10, since he went down to Cameron Norrie in Paris last season.

The seven-time grand slam champion has also won 12 of his 13 career ATP-level matches against South American opponents on hard courts, with his only such defeat coming to Thiago Monteiro at the Great Ocean Road Open in 2021 (round of 16).

Alcaraz improved his win rate at ATP Masters 1000 events to 77.7% (94-27), with Rafael Nadal, Djokovic, Jannik Sinner and Roger Federer being the only players to play at least 10 matches at such tournaments and boast a better career win percentage.