• Report: Carlos Alcaraz, the new prodigy who flees from the shadow of Rafa Nadal

With a parallel to the line, a "Come on!"

and the hand in a fist,

Carlos Alcaraz

celebrated his first victory in a Grand Slam.

The Murcian tennis player beat the Dutchman

Botic van de Zandschulp

(6-1, 6-4, 6-4)

in the first round of the Australian Open

, the youngest Spaniard to debut his account in a 'big' since

Rafa Nadal

, who surpassed

Mario Ancic

at Wimbledon 2003 at 17 years and 20 days.

Alcaraz was not yet two months old.

Today it looks like the future of tennis.

The name is not long in coming out.

Rafa.

Just a few weeks ago,

Toni Nadal

himself

named

Carlos Alcaraz as a natural replacement for the 20-time Grand Slam champion.

It is the pressure with which he learns to deal with the hand of

Juan Carlos Ferrero

, with whom he has worked since he was 15 years old.

"My experience makes me warn him of the dangers, but he has to mature by himself," his coach warned a few months ago in conversation with EL MUNDO.

And how good is it?

They came to ask

David Goffin

, world number 15,

last week

, whom he defeated by a double 6-3 at the Great Ocean Road Open, a preparatory tournament for the first Grand Slam of the season.

"Well, he just killed me, so I would say it's good. He is hitting the ball incredible. I don't know if he plays every day like this, but today he had an incredible performance.

Not bad considering that he had been confined to his room for 14 days due to a positive on his flight to Melbourne.

The Murcian spent his quarantine balling against the mattress, doing cardio with a bike, bodybuilding with rubber bands and explosive speed exercises at the entrance.

Well, and reading the biography of Nadal, with whom he has had the opportunity to train these days.

The Murcian has also been able to get rid of the rust by rallying these days with

Pablo Carreño

, his 'older brother', and

Andrey Rublev

.

A dizzying 2020

Alcaraz continues to rise to the inertia of a dizzying 2020.

Less than a year ago, at 16, he was celebrating his first ATP victory in Rio de Janeiro (against

Albert Ramos

in Rio de Janeiro);

in August he won his first Challenger in Trieste.

Then came Barcelona and Alicante.

He started the season at 492 in the ranking and ended it at 141. He is the youngest tennis player among the top 600, elected Revelation of the Year by the ATP and one of the great promises of world tennis together with Italians

Jannik Sinner

and

Lorenzo Mussetti

.

And if it is not due to the five-month hiatus of the pandemic ...

Perhaps everything would have gone even faster, although it has not hurt to burn stages.

The two match balls that he let slip against Aleksandar Vukic in the first round of the Roland Garros qualifier still hurt.

He still had them very present when he came back against

Filip Horansky

or when he had to fight two tie-breaks against

Evgeny Karlovskiy on the

way to this debut in the box of a great.

Alcaraz defeated Van de Zandschulp (n.151) on track 17, under the gaze of Ferrero and Carreño.

He celebrated the best points with a "Let's go!"

and the hand in a fist, familiar gestures that bring out that name again.

The Murcian was asked about the inspiration he is looking for in Nadal.

"He trains with great intensity. He tries to hit each ball harder than the previous one. He is focused from the first ball to the last."

And the Balearic, of course, they asked him in the opposite direction.

"He has the intensity, the passion and the punches. What he can improve is going to make the difference between whether he is a very good player or a great champion."

There is time for that.

Now the Swede

Mikael Ymer

(

n.95)

awaits him

, who surprised

Hubert Hurkacz

(

n.30

) in a duel of five sets (3-6, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 ).

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • tennis

  • Rafael Nadal

  • Pablo Carreño

  • Alicante

  • Barcelona

  • sports

TenisBautista comes back and ends the victory against Australia of a Spain without Nadal

Australian Open 2021A friendly start for Rafa Nadal in Australia

ATP CupNadal praises Australia's health management: "In Spain or France all this is unthinkable"

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