On Sunday, the first Grand Slam of the year began, the Australian Open, the magnificent event that carefully welcomes all tennis players and with which the real starting signal for the new season is given. As has been usual in recent years, the maximum attention of Spanish fans will fall on our number one, Carlos Alcaraz. We all anticipate the intense and tough fight to occupy first place in the world that, with all certainty, he will continue to maintain with his greatest rival, the Italian Jannik Sinner. But before starting to write about Carlos and the changes he has made to pursue leadership, I want to dedicate a few lines to two other players who this season, in all likelihood, will also receive the attention of the fans: Nick Kyrgios, at world level and Martin Landaluce, above all, at the Spanish level.
The return to competition of the unorthodox Australian tennis player, and despite the fact that his debut has not been entirely encouraging – he has already fallen at the first opportunity, against the Englishman Jacob Fearnley -, will be one of the great incentives of this new year . One of the unknowns, which will be revealed in the coming months, will be whether these last two years of inactivity are going to decisively affect his game or if, on the contrary, he will manage to once again be among the best on the planet and fight for the big titles. . It is true that there are things in his way of acting both on and off the court that I do not share and that I believe are not at all edifying for young people, but it is also true that he is a necessary attraction for our sport.
The Canberra player is different. He has a way of conceiving tennis that is diametrically opposed to that of the rest of his opponents. This has made him one of the most interesting players and one that attracts the most followers on the circuit. In a world conceived and governed by statistics, in which the vast majority of contenders seek the security provided by data and practically all of them follow, from beginning to end, a previously established and long-studied plan, it is surprising that there is someone capable of constantly playing in a disorganized manner.
His unpredictability, his ingenuity and his great talent can overwhelm and put on the ropes any player who faces a game that does not allow itself to be limited by any plan that goes beyond the emotion or sensation that the Australian experiences in each moment. It also combines, as if it were a joke, very powerful and highly difficult shots with others that seem to be made by a player. amateur. I have always admired seeing how he executed them and seeing that his rivals, prisoners of the roller coaster in front of them, were incapable of taking advantage of them. We will, therefore, be attentive to the suspense and willing to give him a certain amount of time to adapt to overcome the doubts that always accompany him.
Martín Landaluce deserves a separate mention, the recently turned 19-year-old who managed to comfortably overcome the qualifying phase for the first time in his career and play in his first Grand Slam. Although in this initial round he had no luck and was eliminated against local player James McCabe, I am convinced that this year he will cease to be one of the great promises of Spanish tennis and will become a firm and effective reality. The man from Madrid has many of the necessary ingredients to aspire to occupy one of the first places in the world and become the necessary complement to Carlos Alcaraz in the Davis Cup, and together form one of the best teams in the world.
Martín is very complete, with a magnificent serve and capable of playing great tennis from the back of the court. But, above all, he is a good competitor, a tennis player who has the ambition and the ability to work that is required to be up there. Perhaps as a result of his size and his youth, his movements are his Achilles heel, but I have no doubt that over time he will correct it. I think that in the coming years we will see him not only face the best players in the world, but very soon become one of them himself.
