For almost a month, Carlos Alcaraz has faced a major challenge: not being Carlos Alcaraz, or at least not completely. Not the one that is known and that transcends as a different, countercultural, creative and dominating tennis player when the flow flows to him. drive. Today, circumstances force him to reformulate himself – the pain that has been in his right forearm for almost a month has attenuated, but he does not fully trust it – and to compete against his own nature, without being able to free himself, corseted . He is the other Alcaraz. “Different,” he points out.
“I’m not going to say that I’m playing at a low percentage or with the handbrake, but in a different way,” he introduces in the conference room, after defeating Thiago Seyboth Wild (double 6-3, in 1h 15m) and enter the round of 16 without a single scratch. “We are all used to seeing me hit my forehand 200%, and many times Juanki [Ferrero, su preparador] He tells me that I don’t need that much even if I’m fine, that I have to relax and put my hand forward. And that’s what I’m doing now. It’s a forehand close to 100%, I’m happy with the way I’m playing; run the ball, which is what we have been working on for a long time.”
Upon returning from the North American tour in March, the tennis player began to feel some pain in his pronator teres muscle and the pain forced him to give up the start of the tour on clay, in Monte Carlo, and later in Godó, where he was defending the title won on Past course. The treatment took effect, but, even so, he still has the fear that his arm will suffer and could jeopardize his participation in Roland Garros, starting on May 26. Hence this more contained version and the extra caution. “It doesn’t cause problems, we continue to improve, but those thoughts of how he is going to go are still there, and I think they will take a while to go away. I still don’t trust it at all, I still think about it. He is still on my mind,” admits the one from El Palmar.
He says that his body asks him to burst the ball, as always, but that little by little he is learning to dose and regulate; an exercise as complex as it is indispensable—not only now, but in the future—that requires you to adapt to another register and control your instincts. However, he does not lose the essence. He constantly looks ahead, but it’s about temporizing, giving the shot one point less power to avoid accidents. “Every time I hit a more aggressive forehand than I have been doing, the thought comes to me of how the forearm is going to react. worse today [por ayer] I said that it was a trial by fire because I didn’t know how I was going to react, and in the end it went super well,” he appreciates.
More conservative
Against Seyboth Wild, as in the first stop of the Madrid tournament against Alexander Shevchenko, the number three in the world built his game on the backhand and did not truly unload with the drive. Despite the more conservative moderation, he signed 11 more winners than his opponent (20-9) and was successful on eight of the 10 occasions he visited the net, and prevailed in 32 of the 57 points decided from the line. background. That is to say, the good vital signs of his game are maintained. If on the day of the premiere he overcame the barrier of fear by deciding to jump onto the track – he did so at the last minute, and not without a prolonged debate with his team -, in the second appearance he exercised with practicality, without as many arabesques as is usual for him. .
Once again, he wore the compression bandage that protects the muscles and performed with more sobriety than spectacularity. Nothing else was needed either. Again, she passed the test and his confidence grew: “I came [a Madrid] a little nervous, because I didn’t know how I was going to handle the arm thing, but I’m very happy. “I played at a high level, from the beginning to the end.” And trust in continuing to apply it. He plays a dance with Jan-Lennard Struff, the gunner he defeated a year ago in the final, in three sets: “It’s a little awkward. He serves and volleys, and he has good baseline shots. I know it’s not going to be easy, but at the same time I know that at this level I can do great things, even if it’s not the priority in my head right now. At this level I am going to give myself opportunities to win the game, to have options.”
He and Rafael Nadal survive in a draw that no longer includes Alejandro Davidovich from Malaga, beaten on Sunday by Andrey Rublev (7-6(10) and 6-4). Another of the young talents, the Danish Holger Rune (6-4, 4-6 and 6-3 in favor of Tallon Griekspoor), was also removed. This Monday, the program offers, among other commitments, those of Rafael Nadal and Sara Sorribes. The Mallorcan is measured against the Argentine Pedro Cachín (not before 4:00 p.m., La 1 and Movistar+) and the Valencian player against the number one, the Polish Iga Swiatek (around 12:30).
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