October 3, 2023, 6:34 p.m.
Carlos Alcaraz will probably go to bed sad and upset today after losing in the semifinals in Beijing. It is logical. Defeats have to hurt athletes, they have to stir their guts. That hackneyed phrase “the important thing is to participate” is fine for a Mr. Wonderful mugbut in the most absolute elite of sport the important thing is not to participate, don’t be fooled: the important thing is to win.
The how is another movie, but We will not enter here into debates about whether the tiqui-taca is better than a counterattack or if Federer’s plasticity is above Nadal’s muscle. We could spend hours and hours and in the end it would be a waste of time.
Another very different matter is not to make excessive drama of the defeat. Chewing and digesting bad moments is something you learn over time. I have always liked a reflection by Nadal that goes a little against the sporting mainstream: “You learn much more from victories than from defeats.” has repeated on more than one occasion. This is said by one of the athletes who has won the most in history, but also one who has lost much more than people think. Do you know how many times Nadal has gone to bed after a loss? no less than 244 times. That’s quite a lot for one of the greatest athletes there has ever been. To contextualize: Lionel Messi has lost 137 games in his entire career.
That does not mean that one does not draw positive conclusions after losing a game. Of course. In fact, Nadal, Federer y Djokovic They have always repeated, actively and passively, that they have been such good players because they have had rivals in front of them who have pushed them far beyond any limit. The athlete needs a nemesis, a rival who beats you, who strangles you, even who sometimes humiliates you. Let it teach you to be better, to get up and reinvent yourself. May you give absolutely everything and may you not win. That you spend six hours playing stratospheric tennis and that you lose a Grand Slam final. Let them tell Nadal in Australia 2012. Let him always keep you alert, always active, never let you let your guard down.
Almost all analysts agree that Carlitos has everything to one day sit down to eat at the Big Three table. Alcaraz has the mentality, the blows, the physique and the gene of a champion. At 20 years old, he has already won two Grand Slams and has been the youngest number one ever. “My dream is to be one of the best tennis players in history. I know it’s a big dream, probably too big, but in this world you have to dream and think big.“Alcaraz said a few months ago in Madrid.
But there is one factor that Alcaraz himself will never be able to control: that of his nemesis. What if he doesn’t have a rival to match? What if you get bored of winning? Alcaraz is aware of that. “It is super important to have someone there, with whom you fight, with whom you have that battle, that beautiful rivalryit is important to maintain motivation for so long,” Alcaraz responded to the EFE agency in Wimbledon. “Right now I think I have it and I’m not afraid to say it: for me it’s Sinner. 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.”
That is why this Tuesday’s defeat is good news for Alcaraz and for tennis. Sinner is there, whispering to Carlitos not to trust himself and not to get lost.. With the Italian pushing, Alcaraz will have the only thing he needs to try to fulfill that “too big” dream.
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. Knowing German shortly after opened the doors of the dpa agency, where he worked as a special envoy to the 2012 London Olympic Games and the 2014 Sochi Winter Games, the 2016 Euro Cup in France and the 2018 World Cup in Russia. In addition, adding Relay and the rest of his career, he has covered the four tennis Grand Slams, the Davis Cup , athletics world championships, Formula 1 Grand Prix and countless LaLiga and Champions League matches. He has also worked as a reporter at El Independiente and traveled to the Tokyo Olympics on the Spanish Olympic Committee team. …
2023-10-03 16:45:44
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