Wherever he goes these days in New York, there is Carlos Alcaraz. The Murcian, who a year ago won the first of his two majors in the city, becoming the youngest number 1 in history and also the youngest champion in Flushing Meadows, is the central image of the promotional campaign for the this year’s edition of the United States Tennis Open, which starts this Monday. The image radiates all its youthful energy and strength from billboards, meanders through the streets embodied on the sides of buses and is the ideal complement to the slogan chosen to publicize the tournament: ‘Spectacular awaits’, something spectacular awaits us.
The man from El Palmar returns to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center with a debut at dawn from Tuesday to Wednesday (2:30 am) on the Arthur Ashe center court in the second match of the night session against Dominik Koepfer, the German left-hander who is 78 of the world. And the option of him becoming the first tennis player to renew the New York title in consecutive years since 2008, when Roger Federer won his fifth in a row at the Arthur Ashe center, would already be enough of a magnet for a tournament that, for the first time since 1990, You cannot advertise with the Swiss, retired last year; nor in Serena Williams, who also said goodbye in 2022 on these tracks and has just become a mother for the second time, nor in Rafael Nadal, a four-time winner in Flushing but absent for the third time in the last four years.
This 2023 has, however, one more incentive: it allows us to imagine a dream final that embodies the pinnacle of tennis today, the rivalry that is making the transition from the ‘Big Three’ to the new generation golden: a potential duel between Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic.
Nole, go for 24
The Serbian, who last year could not be in New York due to the restrictions on the entry to the United States of those not vaccinated against covid, would be placed at number 1 by simply winning the first of his matches (this Monday night against the French Alexandre Müller). He arrives with the sweet aftertaste of the victory against the Murcian in Cincinnati, where just a week ago he won the final after an epic match, another one between the two, lasting almost four hours. But it also comes with the memory of Wimbledon, where in an unforgettable match Juan Carlos Ferrero’s pupil ended the possibility that the 2023 Australian and Roland Garros champion would achieve the four greats on the calendar in the year and add his 24th, that declared goal with which Nole would equal Margaret Court’s record and is now within reach again.
New York has never been the luckiest setting for Djokovic, who although he has reached nine finals ‘only’ has lifted the trophy three times (in 2011, 2015 and 2018) and has experienced dark moments, such as being disqualified in 2020 after hitting a linesman. But as he said before the press on Friday, at 36 he still has the motivation. His is “love” for the competition. He loves playing on the biggest track on the circuit, in front of the loudest crowd. And if there is someone who “pushes him to the limit” and brings out the best in him, which is enough for him to continue to show himself as one, if not the best in history, that is Alcaraz today.
Alcaraz, “more mature, better”
The Murcian reaches the Open, despite reaching the final in Cincinnati, after a few weeks of more erratic tennis than he has been used to, something that contributed to a farewell in the quarterfinals in Montreal against Tommy Paul and forced him to play all three games sets to get to face Nole in Ohio. But he has also picked up pace. And he thrives on big occasions.
Although he tries not to think about the pressure of renewing the title, something that he admits makes things “probably more complicated”, he also knows that it has its advantages compared to 2022. “On the track I feel that I am more mature, I am a better player who does a year”, he said in his press conference prior to the start of the tournament.
In that appearance, in which he wore a Michael Jordan cap and shirt, he did not avoid talking about Djokovic’s strengths, and the lessons he tries to draw and apply to his own game. “He is a mental rock. He never gives up. In tough moments, when he’s down and it looks like he’s going to lose, he always gives himself the opportunity to keep playing and be able to win. It is probably the most important thing that he has, and what I try to learn and bring to my game », he said.
A complex picture
The path to the final dreamed of by organizers and tennis lovers, and possibly by its two protagonists, although they have too much respect for the rest of the players to say so publicly, appears at least on paper to be somewhat more arduous for Carlitos than for Djokovic. On the Serbian’s route from the quarterfinals, there is the possibility of meetings with tennis players such as Stefanos Tsitsipas, Holger Rune or Casper Ruud, last year’s finalist. The potential great challenges for the Spaniard start earlier and are greater.
In the fourth round, Alcaraz could have to face Cameron Norrie and, if he were to overcome him, the worst would be yet to come. Because in the quarterfinals the draw has raised a potential meeting with Jannik Sinner, the young Italian who this month won his first Master 1000 in Montreal and who last year almost frustrated the Spanish’s triumph in an intense and memorable meeting in that same round, five hours and a quarter of brilliant and epic tennis where Sinner came to have a match ball on his racket.
In the semifinals, in addition, a possible rival would be the number three in the world and the man who in 2021 left Djokovic at the gates of victory (and a Grand Slam) in New York: Daniil Medvedev. The Russian is one of those who thinks that “it is fantastic for tennis” and “a great story” that this rivalry between the Serb and Alcaraz was born, “a very strong player, especially for his age.” But he assures that “now in each tournament a goal for everyone is to try to prevent them from playing against each other” and he would not mind playing the role of “spoiler” for all those who long for the dream final.
2023-08-28 06:46:35
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