The day after the fall and the earthquake, with everyone in the crowd shaking their heads the night before, in Flushing Meadows they are trying to figure out why and the question is repeated in one corner and another: “What the hell happened to Carlitos? What is going through that saturated mind right now? Why did he lose like that and now, signing what was probably his poorest match in a Grand Slam and against a player, Botic van de Zandschulp, who had not managed to steal even a set from him in the two previous encounters?” This is a wounded tennis player, emotionally exhausted and confused, consumed by the emotional sprint of the last four months and another season at full speed, twists and more twists in good times and bad. He is 21 years old and, therefore, has a lot to learn.
“I feel like instead of taking steps forward, I’ve taken steps backwards in terms of my mentality,” he explains after losing 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 (in 2h 19m) to the 28-year-old Dutchman, ranked 74th in the world. “And I don’t understand why, because I was coming off a spectacular summer, at Roland Garros. [campeón por primera vez]from Wimbledon [segunda]leaving there saying that mentally I had taken a step forward, like I had realized that to win big things or Grand Slams you have to be tough in the head,” he continues; “I come to this tour and it’s like I’ve taken steps backwards. It’s like I’m not mentally well, it’s like I’m not strong. One of the problems I have is that I don’t know how to control myself, I don’t know how to manage it and that’s a problem.”
Alcaraz tries to reason from a new circumstance for him, that of a very young superstar who is not used to defeat and who continues to discover the tortuous reality of the elite, regardless of the category; from top to bottom in just a month and a half, the period between the second title in London and this New York setback. In between, emotions in abundance, an overdose of adrenaline and what from within the tennis circuit is interpreted as an anomaly that many prefer to give up: the Games. The defeat against Novak Djokovic in the Paris final had a greater significance than expressed and the Olympic experience took a double toll.
First of all, the logical transition phase between Wimbledon and the US Open disappeared, and consequently, the pause, rest and mental interval necessary to recharge the batteries; in total, 28 Roland Garros matches here. Added to this are the abrupt changes of surface – four in this last quarter; clay-grass-clay-cement – and the high physical erosion derived from the tandem formed with Rafael Nadal, that artificial Nadalcaraz who demanded a price: double the matches in the event and compete with another extra responsibility to be up to the circumstances. Not disappointing, more pressure. The photo remained, but the Murcian’s cylinder suffered and the subsequent outcome against Djokovic ended up making a dent in the subconscious of a boy who is still learning to understand and process.
Pause and reflection
“I have to see what happened or what is happening to me exactly. It has been a very emotional summer, very demanding. The tennis calendar is very tight. I have had my moments of disconnection, but well, I think that I am still getting to know myself and that perhaps as a person I need more time. I have to get to know myself, to know what I need at each moment,” he says, disappointed after an episode that will have a severe impact on the ranking. The loss of points —670, since he was defending the semi-finals reached last year in New York— exposes him to the possibility of falling off the podium and greatly complicates the option of ending the year as number one, an objective sought and verbalized by the tennis player when he joined this frustrated North American tour.
First the vital chapter of hitting the asphalt in the opening match in Cincinnati, the result of the accumulated tension, and then the twisted night against Van de Zandschulp, when the previous match against the unknown Li Tu (186th) had already hinted that a storm was coming. Surprising, in any case, the premature farewell to New York. “The truth is that I have not thought about all the demands so close together and that this [la carga física y mental] “That’s what could have affected me,” admits Alcaraz, the protagonist of a sensational season in which he has lifted two major titles – he already has four, the same number as champions such as Manolo Santana, Ken Rosewall, Guillermo Vilas and Jim Courier – and in which a false turn has now occurred, following the most severe defeat of his career in a major.
Ahead of him is a quarter that has so far resisted him (those damned Alcarazian autumns) and in the immediate future, a necessary analysis. Stop, reflect and take a breath. Right now, the player from El Palmar is a tennis player on the couch. “There is a lot of pressure on him. He has done something so, so good this summer, so incredible, that in the end his head may have said: ‘that’s it’. He comes from winning two majors, he lost in a second round; we should wave to him every day,” says Paula Badosa, the only survivor —thanks to the triumph over Elena Gabriela Ruse— along with Jessica Bouzas. The two of them hold their own in a scenario that has already erased Alcaraz’s name from the poster and that now opens up: Zverev? Medvedev? Perhaps Djokovic again? Time for the bell to ring? The Spaniard had 15 victories in the majors and his sudden absence resonates.
But that’s Carlitos, a ray of light that disappears just as quickly as it usually comes back. And boy does it come back.
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