Sensation at the Masters
Young Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz unexpectedly beat his title-holder compatriot Rafael Nadal. But the 19-year-old tennis player is now rightfully called one of the most promising at the moment.
It is worth noting that the clay-court tournament in the Spanish capital attracted almost all the experienced tennis players. Of course, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal attracted the attention of the public, and these were the main favourites for the title. The Serb is slowly recovering and reached the semi-finals where he lost to Andrei Rublev of Russia. As for the Spaniard, he is just starting a new season for himself and Madrid is the first tournament on his schedule.
The two men have won in the capital before, with the Serb winning 3 times and the Spaniard 5. And after the opening of the net, many began to expect that the opponents would meet in the semi-finals, but they still needed to get to that stage.
Djokovic, one could say, made it to the semi-finals with almost no problems. Nadal, on the other hand, who hadn’t played in a month and a half due to injury and hadn’t performed since his loss in the Indian Wells final. Rafael’s first match was pretty predictable and he won, but in the next round the resistance was serious. Rafa missed 2 match points in the 2nd set, and only on the tiebreaker of the 3rd set was he able to escape and overpower his opponent.
His next opponent was a young compatriot, Carlos Alcaraz, whom many rightfully called the heir to the king of the soil. And at the time of the quarter-final game, the young tennis player was only 19 years old. And the statistics show that he has achieved almost identical results to Rafa at that age. But he is now the most promising, as at such an early age he is ranked in the top 10 and has won the Masters. In addition, the youngster already had wins over renowned opponents to his credit.
The opponents had played twice before, and twice the more experienced Spaniard prevailed. And before the third match Nadal said that at the moment Carlos was better than him, the dynamics are excellent and his psychological state is much better. In addition, age plays an important role and it is clear that the advantage is on his side. On the contrary, if talking about Alcaraz he stated that Rafael is the best player in the world on the ground and he must be regarded as the favourite regardless of his preparation. The important thing is that he is the one who has taken the title here five times.
From the beginning of the fight it was clear that the more experienced Spaniard was wary of a promising opponent. Although some parts were equal, by the third game everything became clear. Carlos began to catch Nadal at mistakes and the latter often failed to do so. It was obvious that he had not yet recovered from his last match.
Things got murky in the second set when he reached for the ball and sprained his ankle. After getting help, the game continued, but it was clear that to be and serve was no longer possible.
After the break the young tennis player looked fresher, started more than confidently and overall performed better than Nadal. In other words, the youngster inflicted a nasty defeat on the 5-time Masters champion. Thus, fans will not see a meeting between Djokovic and Rafa. But on the other hand, it will be interesting to see how Carlos will behave against the 1st racket of the world.
