It's obvious.
We should never lose faith in Carlos Alcaraz (19).
This tennis player, Alcaraz, will not be a transitory number 1: he is here to stay. It is illustrated by the regularity on any surface, and also the performances under pressure.
Instead of collapsing when he feels the pressure of Novak Djokovic, the Serbian who aspires to be the best player in history, Alcaraz responds by encouraging himself even more.
This is how he has behaved in the last ten days, at the Indian Wells Masters 1000, when asked about Daniïl Medvédev, his latest victim.
A double 6-3 had scored the Russian. A double 6-3 in a three and nothing and as the colophon of a Masters 1000. This is how Alcaraz moves under pressure.
(...)
Medvédev (27) is not a newcomer either. Before conceding to Alcaraz, he had strung together 19 consecutive victories.
- It wasn't bad, right? I was proud of my streak - confessed the Russian, resigned, on Sunday in the Californian night.
Medvédev and Sasha Zverev have been the big faces of the Next Gen. It should have been a defining generation. There is Tiafoe, Kyrgios, Shapovalov or Rubliov. These men should be in command now.
And what?
Well, the Next Gen has ended up swallowed up by the tribes that surround it: we are talking about the Big Three, the holy trinity embodied by Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, and also the young puppies that come behind. Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Sebastian Korda or Holger Rune are starting to be too much for that, the Next Gen, the generation of Medvédev, Zverev and the rest.
The numbers say so.
Even as a teenager, Alcaraz can add 22 weeks as leader of the ATP circuit. He alone would accumulate more weeks as the world leader than the entire Next Gen itself (actually, in the case of Next Gen, the lead is reduced to Medvedev's 19 weeks).
And one fact illuminates his resume even more: according to figures from the ATP Tour, Alcaraz's 22 weeks would exceed the 21 weeks as leaders that, together, had been added by Ievgueni Kafelnikov, Thomas Muster, Marcelo Ríos, Carlos Moyá and Patrick Rafter.
When they bring up that dance of figures and data, Alcaraz shrugs his shoulders and says:
- I can't help talking about it. But what I can do is not think about it. Once all this data enters the view, I have to forget it after a second. I don't think of beating precocious marks or anything for the sake of style. I'm just trying to fulfill my dreams.
Well, that's how tennis is.
A dream that lasts for an instant.
An ace or a point solved with a let is followed by another point. And you have to win it too, a double fault puts us back in the hole, every point has the same value.
The Miami Masters 1000 starts today, in Key Biscayne, and Alcaraz is playing for the lead he has just regained: the Murcian is defending the 2022 victory, so he needs to get to Sunday, April 2 and win the decisive match to stay on top
(For now, he will make his debut in the second round, against the winner of the match between Facundo Bagnis and a tennis player in the small draw.)
The challenge is remarkable, as a Masters 1000 is not easily won. Until 2022, no Spanish male tennis player had won in California.
Not even Rafael Nadal.
Nadal will not be in Indian Wells this time (he continues to be out of action, he has fallen to 13th place on the circuit, he accumulated 18 years in the top 10), and neither will Djokovic, banned by the United States authorities after denying - get vaccinated against covid. However, the rest of tennis' talents will be there, including Medvédev, Casper Ruud, Andrei Rubliov, Stéfanos Tsitsipas and Félix Auger-Aliassime.
