Being number one and winning two Grand Slams at the age of 20 is something that only one tennis player in history has done. His name is Carlos Alcaraz and there is no authorized voice in the circuit that dares to put a roof on him. Much less after his display in the Wimbledon final, where he knocked out Novak Djokovic in five sets after coming back from 6-1.
Comparisons with Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have become commonplace. Most experts agree that he has things of all three: the versatility of the Serb, the elegance of the Swiss and the claw of the Spaniard. Alcaraz can be compared right now in style and precociousness records, but what has really placed the Big Three in a twilight zone in tennis is his longevity. Enduring until well past 35 years at the highest level, with the hunger and the spirit of improvement intact.
In that sense, Carlitos still has many pages to write to one day aspire to look at Djokovic, Federer and Nadal from face to face. Although he has never hidden his enormous ambition. It’s what he wants and he’s going to try. “My dream is to be one of the best tennis players in history. I know it’s a very big dream, probably too big, but in this world you have to dream and think big.“Alcaraz himself said a couple of months ago during the Mutua Madrid Open.
His injury history and the “Nadal Plan”
For it, a sine qua non is to have a long and successful career. Nadal, Djokovic and Federer have been close to two decades at the top. The Spaniard and the Serbian broke into the best when they were teenagers, just like Alcaraz now, while the Swiss had an implosion somewhat later. What the Big Three does have in common is that all three found the formula to follow year after year. They overcame difficult moments and returned. New generations arrived and crushed them. Tennis was his. There were almost no rivals.
Djokovic and Federer are united by the fact that they hardly had any injuries throughout their careers, something that helps, logically. can’t say the same Nadal, besieged by physical problems and unable to chain two consecutive seasons without injuries. In the case of Alcaraz, his history with injuries refers a lot to Nadal. Between November 2022 and March 2023, the Murcian has suffered three muscle injuriesto which must be added the chapter on cramps at Roland Garros. Alcaraz attributed it to a mental pressure problem, which resulted in a body block, but it was another warning that his body is his biggest rival.
Alcaraz offers a physical display in each game that is very reminiscent of Nadal. He does not give a ball for lost, he runs without brakes all over the court and shows muscle. But that takes its toll. In Alcaraz’s team they are clear that the Murcian will have to dose himself over time in order to have as long and clean a career as possible. “Over time it will moderate that extreme way of playing”Antonio Martínez-Cascales, one of his coaches, told Relevo a few months ago. “I hope that it moderates it, but that it is little, that it does not lose its essence, because it must always be a sign of its identity and what is going to make it what it is.”
Looking for a rival to match
The issue of injuries will depend to a large extent on the decisions made by Alcaraz. The logical thing is that each year that he passes, he will be playing fewer minor tournaments -like the Hopman Cup this weekend- and design a calendar focused on the Grand Slams and the Masters 1000.
What is totally out of his control are the rivalries that he may forge. Nadal, Federer and Djokovic have repeated actively and passively that if they are so good it is because they have had some rivals in front of them that have pushed them beyond the limit. Alcaraz needs his nemesis, some tennis player who won epic matches for him, who crushed him in a Grand Slam finalthat makes you think over and over again about what you have to improve.
“It’s super important to have someone there, with whom you fightwith whom you have that battle, that beautiful rivalry, is important to stay motivated for so long“, Alcaraz responded to the EFE agency after his triumph at Wimbledon. “Right now I think I have it and I’m not afraid to say it: for me it’s Sinner, for now. That beautiful rivalry that we have, those big games that we have played, on big stages. As the years go by there will be better ones and we will fight for the big titles”.
Born two years before Alcaraz, Sinner is settled in the top ten, but it is difficult for him to take that step in the big tournaments to look at the Grand Slam champions face to face. At the moment they have already met six times, with three wins for each one and with the quarterfinals of the US Open 2022 –a match of more than five hours with victory for Alcaraz after saving a match point– as a masterpiece. Sinner, Rune, Musetti… names are not lacking to fill that gap that is still vacant, that of the tennis player who has to challenge the reign of Alcaraz. The Murcian needs it.
Nacho Encabo is a sports editor at Relevo, a specialist in tennis and the Olympic Games. Born in Madrid, he studied Journalism and Audiovisual Communication at the Rey Juan Carlos University and began as an intern in the sports section of El Mundo in 2011. Shortly after, knowing German opened the doors of the dpa agency, where he worked as a special envoy for the London 2012 Olympic Games and the Sochi 2014 Winter Games, the Euro Cup in France 2016 and the 2018 World Cup in Russia. In between, he covered the four Grand S tennis lam, the 2015 Beijing World Athletics Championships, Formula 1 Grand Prix and countless LaLiga and Champions League matches. He has also worked as a reporter for El Independiente and traveled to the Tokyo Olympics on the Spanish Olympic Committee team. …
2023-07-25 16:19:20
#Alcaraz #lot #aspire #Big #matter #control
