Roland Garros – second round –
It is already known that the smile is the best indication of how Carlos Alcaraz is doing, and in recent times it has not been abundant when the tennis player is on the court. “Positive! “Enjoy, let it be noticed!” he says from the boxes his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, when he detects that the Murcian’s attitude is faltering and that if he does not rectify it in time, he could end up in a lot of trouble. The situation was unexpected. Jesper de Jong, 175th in the world, has only played eight matches on the ATP circuit, three on clay, and comes from the qualifying phase of the tournament. However, he fights non-stop and the duel (6-3, 6-4, 2-6 and 6-2, in 3h 09m) ends up being resolved by lurches, by force, when logic favors the Spaniard, who has Had a bad time in the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth. Five times he has delivered the serve, 47 errors reflect the card; 26 with the right.
“In these types of tournaments, anyone can get you in trouble. You have to be focused on each point, no matter the ranking, this is what Jesper has demonstrated. In the third set I had to forget to offer Showand try to be in every exchange, because you had to put six or seven balls in each point. We have made drop shots and good shots, and he has done better than me,” he says on the court during the talk with Àlex Corretja. “It’s good to have a rhythm, but I would prefer to spend fewer hours on the track,” he adds, not yet knowing who he will face on the third stop, because the water has suspended the course of the day on the outside courts and has left the pulse between Sebastian Korda and Soonwoo Kwon in the air. Whoever it is, breathe a sigh of relief today. Hard day at the office.
It rains and rains in Paris, where the Nadal moment, that sepulchral silence that dominated the headquarters on Monday, a constant murmur can be heard while Alcaraz and De Jong fight, a 23-year-old Dutchman with no complexions with a desire for war who fights, challenges and pushes without stopping, leading the Murcian towards the undesirable terrain of frustration, of wanting and not being able to; There is no way to free that right and the thoughts come and go, although it discounts another season of a tournament that it seemed indecipherable and that still remains so, with no more certainty than knowing that the great history will no longer be possible, that the historical totem of the earth is now out of plane and everything is still very open. But it does. Djokovic appeared the night before with a long face and Alcaraz still doesn’t really enjoy it.
“There is no player who comes with a dynamic like Rafa’s for so many years, or Djokovic’s in recent years. Nole has not done well at all on this tour, Carlos comes with the injury issue, Sinner too… There are Zverev and Tsitsipas… But I think there is no clear favorite,” Pablo Carreño commented three days before, the Asturian already eliminated , attentive now to what his friend Carlos can or cannot do, who reflects and regrets to himself: Damn it! Damn pronator! There is no longer pain in the forearm, but the fear is still there and shackles a tennis player who last year landed in Paris as a favorite and who now deals with the antics of the mind and that treacherous muscle that he discovered two months ago.
Set and a half of curves
“I’ve gotten a little self-conscious,” he admitted on Tuesday after the premiere. And two days later, watching from the stands, the feeling continues to be similar. Alcaraz advances, unbeatable news in a context, that of a majorwhich by no means requires shine day after day, but at the same time it still does not release that right that so many oooooohhhsss kilometer he monopolized a year ago, when the boy arrived in optimal conditions – after triumphing in Barcelona and Madrid – and hit without qualms or ties, without today’s corset. He is internalizing and learning, aware that each hit is not the last nor an invitation to show off, and that it is advisable to dose each day, in each tournament, but for the moment he has not been seen in his element, unleashed, as he would like. like. This time he hits a bump.
The coordinate seems clear: not to take unnecessary risks and, in the meantime, gain time and try, gradually regaining confidence — “the arm is one hundred percent,” he repeats — and increasing the average speed in hitting. The Murcian, resigned, accepts. But it’s not the same. In any case, the patience of these last few weeks has allowed him to reach Paris and also overcome the first two obstacles, this second very uncomfortable, very responsive De Jong, a fighter all the time despite the fact that his quads are suffering in the final stretch, He swallows pills and gives in. The filming that the intrepid Dutchman incorporates in the qualifiers gives him wings and constantly poses very tough challenges that Alcaraz ends up solving with an acceleration in time that avoids a bigger mess. Ugh, his look comes to say.
Spanish prevails in the last exchange of slaps—four breaks followed—and the knot is undone. She exhaled air, looked at her and held content. Like his tennis of this half-present in which freedom, always expensive, is hard to ask for.
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