Ojiplático, world tennis contemplates the explosion of Carlos Alcaraz (he turned twenty this week), possibly the tennis player of the future, without a doubt the tennis player of the present.
Rivals and different surfaces pass by and the Murcian (let's stop calling him a teenager) reconfigures and adapts, he is the water that Bruce Lee proposes us to be:
–Be water, my friend.
Alcaraz can make Medvedev or Fritz dizzy on a fast surface.
The a Tsitsipás on clay.
And he can also get rid of Jan-Lennard Struff (33) on clay, for example in this final of the Mutua Madrid Open, a tournament whose title he has repeated (6-4, 3-6 and 6-3), a victory that places him one step away from the world leadership: Alcaraz just has to jump onto the track of the Roman Foro Italico in the coming days, win or lose at its premiere, to once again be number 1 on the ATP circuit.
His handling of the game shows us how far he is capable of going.
Believe it or not the reader, the final against the huge Struff was a cheat match.
Struff is the 65th racket in the world. And she has never offered great passages in the world of tennis. However, her game generates bewildering synergies, especially when she plays on clay.
Struff is almost two meters tall, and had reached the final of the Mutua Madrid Open starting from the previous phase and always raising the same premise: Struff plays on clay as he plays on grass, or synthetic. He serves at 225 km / h, he looks for the serve-volley, he is aggressive all the time, he never lets the tennis flow. He does not accept the rallies, he does not want the rival to find the rhythm.
Facing the German, Alcaraz faces the unexpected. In Madrid, Struff has knocked down Karatsev, Tsitsipás or Sonego, he arrives inspired and flush, and he does everything well in the first set: his game grows and conditions Alcaraz, who does not know where to shoot, as the German goes up and He climbs into the net and there is nowhere the hell to pass him, balloons don't work with him, his racket caresses the sky.
– What do I do? –Alcaraz asks his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, after a lost set.
And it's true: what does he do?
Because Struff is a game gale, and locks the game, and returns bombs to the rest, especially when Alcaraz's serve goes to his right.
–Do not serve his drive! –says Ferrero, who stirs in the VIP box.
And at other times:
–Make sure the ball bounces short, let's move it!
And Alcaraz tries things and doesn't finish finding himself.
He is so disconcerted by the German's game that he sends a range of balls out, misses much more than necessary, barely appropriates the first set but fails to take flight in the second, which Struff takes.
The party is tense.
Alcaraz doesn't seem to be him, he doesn't appear, and he chains four misses when the German serves, the Alcaraz moments don't arrive, the waterfall of aces, dropshots and lobs that he usually deploys.
Lacking inspiration, Alcaraz pulls courage. He suffers to sign up for the third game of the third set (2-1) and then calls out to the public, demands his support, needs his accompaniment.
The public plays along, comforts him, and an Alcaraz moment arises, a drop shot that blocks Struff and facilitates his acceleration: Alcaraz breaks the German's serve (it makes it 3-1) and, suddenly, the storm subsides.
Now it is Struff who finally disengages, the giant collapses, seems to finally understand why Alcaraz is where he is, at the top of tennis, and has already won four titles in 2023 and has signed up for 29 of 31 matches.
“Today I have enjoyed at times. I've suffered. But I have enjoyed more than I have suffered. In the end you have to be there all the time, I knew he would send me bombs. Luckily, I have been able to adapt to what was coming”, the Murcian says goodbye.
The next stop is Rome.
And in the background Paris lights up, the territory of Nadal, the tennis player who lives wrapped in doubts.
