In a flash, already a closed night in Paris, while Rafael Nadal attends to the press in the guts of Philippe Chatrier, the sensational Carlos Alcaraz (19) swallows Karen Kachánov: the Russian without a flag gives up the first set (6-1 in 28 m) and no longer knows what to do.
The time, already close to midnight, and the cool weather matter little or nothing to the Murcian teenager.
The public has huddled in the stands and some take out blankets and cover their heads with their hoods, and Kachanov serves as hard as he can, his life goes out with each blow, but Alcaraz, the tennis player of the moment, continues to invent and disconcert to those who contemplate it: it is a delight for the senses.
Kachanov (26), a temperamental tennis player, tenses up, tends to rage, and gets mad at himself when he gives up serve in the second set.
-But I do? he - she shouts when she sees herself 4-3 down, again against the ropes.
Alcaraz plays with him, plays like a puppy nibbles a tennis ball, and throws crossed right hands that move Kachánov away and then surprises him with a drop shot, Alcaraz for a moment, since he already has a tennis stamp.
Moments of that coat follow one another, and Alcaraz celebrates them and Juan Carlos Ferrero, his coach, not so much.
As a tennis player, Ferrero (42) has won in Paris (in 2003) and has been a finalist in the US Open and has been number 1 in the world in that magnificent year, and that is why he remains undaunted, with his arms crossed, and barely gesticulates except when he puts his index finger to his forehead and insists to his pupil:
-Think, think, think.
Alcaraz listens to him but he is also doing.
And it is going very fast, as much as it has grown in the last year -last May it was 97th in the world-, and at an hour and a quarter the second round has already been signed and Kachanov is a foot and a half out of Roland Garros and barely found out about the movie.
The forcefulness with which Alcaraz handles himself, who has already chained fourteen consecutive victories, and among them the titles of Barcelona and Rome, is fascinating.
He never doubts, neither when he climbs into the net nor when he throws a parallel, and he does everything well and with criteria, and of course these heights of a Grand Slam are not great for him, nor the round of 16 this Sunday nor the quarterfinals who will play on Tuesday against Sasha Zverev.
Kachanov curses himself, curses the fate that has befallen him when he came across such a talent.
And the public fulfills its mission: it takes the side of the weak. And he celebrates the winning points of the tennis player without a flag, but his heart is broken because everything Alcaraz does is marvelous, including a lob he throws while running backwards to save another lob that, a few tenths of a second before, Kachanov sent him.
The cold is definitely unbearable when Alcaraz returns the break to Kachánov, but the parish asks for more and hums and continues shouting, excited by the gifts that the Murcian gives him, a tennis player designed to mark an era, time will tell in what parameters we we are moving
