Davidovich, the Spaniard who shines at the US Open after sharpening with Djokovic

Alejandro Davidovich (Málaga, 1999) has a tsunami tattooed on his left forearm.

This is how this man from Malaga is defined (from Fuengirola, but with a Russian father and Swedish mother).

He wants to take everything ahead, although, he confesses, he works to tame himself a little.

He was announced as one of the greatest promises of Spanish tennis when he won the junior tournament at Wimbledon in 2017 and now, after a five-month hiatus due to the pandemic, he has broken his first roof in a big game: this Sunday he will face

, number 5 in the world, in the round of 16 of the US Open.

The man from Malaga is one of the surprises for the men's team at Flushing Meadows.

This season he added more defeats (4) than victories (2) in ATP and he traveled to New York with only two 'greats' in his suitcase, last year's Roland Garros -the only one where he managed to pass the previous one- and the last Open of Australia.

The contact was not good either and fell in the first round of the Masters 1000 in Cincinnati against

, number 72 in the world.

The talent was there, but this performance was not yet in the plans.

Davidovich beat Austrian Dennis Novak (number 85) in the first round and Pole

(33)

in the second

.

"It is the most important victory of my career," he said.

He had never gone this far in a big one and had never defeated an opponent with that ranking.

But perhaps the adjective lasted only two days because, although the British

was a more modest rival, the victory was worth a ticket for the second week of the US Open.

I work with Djokovic

The lack of definition offered a unique opportunity for Alejandro Davidovich.

When his team learned that Novak Djokovic had passed the confinement in his mansion in Marbella, he offered to work together.

The two train at times at the Puente Romano club but they had never met.

The proposal ended in a week of work with his idol, an accelerated course with the best tennis player in the world.

"You learn a lot. They are two hours training hard, hitting each ball where it has to be," he explains.

Davidovich sometimes likes to look for big shots (those impulses that he wants to control, but not take off) and against the Serbian he came up with one to show off: a passing from the back, between the legs, and adjusted to the baseline, to respond to a balloon against Nole's foot.

"[Training with Djokovic] helped me see where my game is. It's incredible," he confesses, although if I could 'steal' something from him, it would be 'the mentality.'

"Both Rafa and Novak are a stone," he said a few days ago on Eurosport.

The week with Nole was the high point of five months that Alejandro Davidovich has used to give his game an acceleration, a springboard that is now paying off at the US Open.

The last Spanish who had gotten into the round of 16 of a great with only 21 years had been

at the Australian Open in 2008. By then he already had three Roland Garros, although that is another paste.

Davidovich responds to Nadal's claim, who more than once has drawn attention to the need for relief in Spanish tennis.

The man from Malaga is already in the round of 16 at the US Open while

Murcia

, champion of the Trieste challenger a few days ago, is already in the Cordenons semifinals.

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