Lacking air, Alcaraz pulls his cannon

After chatting with journalists and having saved his neck with a creditable victory against Andrey Rublev 6-3 and 7-6(8), Carlos Alcaraz’s hands are still sweaty, the result of the lack of temper that the Murcian still manages following the cold that caught him shortly before landing in Turin. Since then, the improvement has been slight and the virus continues to plague him. “Ugh, don’t believe it…” he answers a reporter. “What has been improving has been the belly, but what is the cold, the chest, I have not improved much. Even so, I continue to hope that, as the days go by, it will improve; If I feel good, the better, and if not, I will try to give my best level as I am,” adds the tennis player, who tomorrow (2:00 p.m., Movistar+) will play everything on one card against Alexander Zverev, beyond the caroms that the numbers may bring in the group’s final day. Winning simplifies everything.

As happened a year ago, although in different circumstances, Alcaraz has managed to turn around the adverse initial scenario and the ball is now in his court. The Spaniard has achieved this by overcoming a very harsh situation, seeing that his energy reserves have decreased as a result of the respiratory setback and that the congestion does not completely subside, and through a demonstration of tennis maturity against a demanding rival like Rublev. Before the Russian, he was considering several plans, taking into account that the possibility that the forces would not respond was high, but that was not the case. He rolled up his sleeves and ran around, and where his legs couldn’t reach, he reached with the service. Despite being the most improvable aspect of his game, on this occasion it saved him: 80% of points retained with firsts, only 14 serves given up and aces when the course of the match required it, 10 in total.

Not once did he open the door, not a single break option for the one from Moscow. “Nowadays the serve is a very important weapon, the best players have a great serve. And when you don’t feel great, or you think you’re not going to play at all well from the baseline, the serve is a great weapon,” he says satisfied, having interpreted as a fable what a very complicated duel demanded because if Rublev imposes the rhythm of the Metronome becomes a corrosive player. “Here the track is slower, so you have to work on the points more. I held on and didn’t get tense when they got longer; I was fine and I understood who I was playing against and what I had to do,” he emphasizes, while acknowledging that the advice of his father and his team has been essential to understanding how he should react.

At the end of the day, that was what it was about, performing at your best without being one hundred percent, a non-negotiable path for anyone who aspires to occupy a privileged space in history. So Alcaraz put an adhesive on his nose, smeared ointment on his torso, and applied it. He served as he had not done in a long time and hit 31 winning shots, double that of his opponent, 14. “Normally he uses spin, but this time he served very flat,” said Rublev, who accepted the right hands with resignation. “I was aware that I would have to endure exchanges of more than six or seven blows. Then it was difficult for me to recover, but in the end I managed it,” stressed the one from El Palmar, who continues to reinforce his status as strong with the strong; This season he has 12 wins against tennis players from top-10 and now faces Zverev.

The German is a bigger challenge. At 27 years old, he seems to have become aware and is definitely looking for a dimensional leap, aware that if he does not achieve it he will lose the wake of the Murcian and Jannik Sinner, the dominators of the moment. So far, between them, ten matches and an equal distribution of victories. “Against the players topyou think that you have to play your best tennis because if not, you are going to lose. I tell myself that I am better if I play at a high level; Tennis is a mental sport and it is very important how you talk to yourself before the matches,” Alcaraz conceded before leaving the room, at which time he was informed by this newspaper of the events with the Dana in Malaga. Having spoken during the conference on the matter and regretting not having been able to travel to Valencia previously, the tennis player read the headline and saw the images. He said goodbye: “Let us pray, let us pray that there are no victims…”.