Before the semi-final match against Russian Daniil Medvedev, the tension that precedes every match was in the air at the Wimbledon house where Carlos Alcaraz and his team were staying. However, the young tennis player (21 years old) seemed to be about to start another day at the office. Nerves? Yes, but just enough. “Just enough, because they are good,” said the man from Murcia, who that morning burst into one of the rooms and, quite naturally, without any trace of anxiety or excitement, said to a person who was hanging around inside, who was perplexed by the boy’s astonishing calm: “It’s time for a match, let’s see how we do today…”
This is Alcaraz, surely the standard-bearer of a new generation of athletes who are transforming the paradigm: fewer fears, in any case expressible, without fear of expressing ambitions and of putting an end to the old mantra that, to succeed, suffering must prevail over enjoyment. In his case, there is no lack of submission to the traditional (and essential) Spartan method, personal care, sacrifices and the extraordinary daily effort required to reach the top of the elite; in reality, an unsuitable life for a twenty-something from the street. However, he and all those young people who are arriving to touch the sporting sky conceive it in a different way.
“As the years go by, maybe I will mature and this will end,” he said these days. “But for now we are going to continue enjoying what we like, which is having fun, looking for those complicated shots and trying to make people enjoy themselves, even if sometimes I make a mess.” Alcaraz plays, guaranteed spectacle. And cold sweats on his box when everything is up in the air and he, as if nothing were happening, bets everything on a drop shot or an exceptional shot. But, in reality, he has complete confidence. Those around him know how he does things. It was always like that and now, despite the unwritten rules, it doesn’t change. Another way of competing, another way of winning. via Federerbut a more hedonistic spirit.
“Don’t you see me laughing when he does that? Carlos plays differently. Those kinds of shots are innate to him, they come naturally to him. Many times he surprises you and makes you happy, and other times you would give him a slap in the face. But he gives us a lot of joy,” says his trainer, Juan Carlos Ferrero, who has been supervising the tennis player since he was 15 years old and who has had no choice but to take the line and accept, like the technicians, physiotherapists and trainers, on more than one occasion: Carlitos debunks theories. The pause, the disconnection, as important or more than that millimetric preparation in physical terms. Hence the importance of those four days in Ibiza after conquering Roland Garros for the first time.
Overwhelmed after two complicated months, pending the recovery of his right forearm – due to a muscle injury – and in which he had to make several difficult decisions by ruling out several tournaments, the athlete chose the island to get some air, renew his spirits and recharge his professional tank. Sun and dance: fuel. “I also need those things,” he says. “It is clear that each tennis player is different, but for me, to reach my best level I need to separate my personal life from tennis: have my days off, be able to rest my mind, be with family and friends… Put the racket aside. All of that is very good for me,” reasons Alcaraz, a cutting-edge tennis player who breaks molds.
He spreads his arms out in the air, like his friend Jude Bellingham, who laughs with water up to his neck. He is a world turned upside down. He enjoys complicating things. The new talents and their creed. Carlos, Lamine, Nico. “Yes, I consider myself different. I don’t want to be a hypocrite. I sincerely understand that people can’t imagine themselves doing the same things I do,” replied the prodigious David Popovici, 19 years old, a torpedo in the pool, to this newspaper. And Andre Agassi portrayed him in March: “With his style of play, Carlos is choosing the hardest path, that of doing spectacularly every 10 seconds. He is great for the game and great to watch, but is it the most efficient? He is so gifted that he is capable of achieving it, he can do it.”
Given the facts, things don’t seem to be going too badly for him.
GRASS, EARTH AND CEMENT IN ONE MONTH
AC | London
Alcaraz managed to save the 2,000 points he earned a year ago in London, putting him 1,440 points behind Italian Jannik Sinner, the current world leader. In second place, Djokovic is 330 points ahead of him.
The Murcia native will next compete in the Paris Games and then take on the North American hard court tour. The Monteral Masters will be held from 6 to 12 August and the Cincinnati Masters from 12 to 19 August, before the US Open (from 26 to 8 September).
In this sense, he will have to defend 1,500 points there, compared to Sinner’s 1,190 and Djokovic’s 3,000. He will do so on cement, after having stepped on the grass and then the clay of Paris, where he will return to compete in the Games.
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