Djokovic, almost 35 years old, and Nadal, almost 36, compete pursued by time.
They know the time is coming when he will hunt them down and put an end to their colossal ambitions.
Their goals are the big ones.
The rest of the calendar uses it as a way to get ready to keep their pulse on an exclusive place in history.
They confess it without hesitation.
They manage their deadlines to look for their best version at Roland Garros, which is now the next special category port.
Others, even being young, like Tsitsipas or Zverev, begin to fear that they may pass the rice.
They don't summit.
And they manifest obvious symptoms of anxiety.
Just turned 19,
Alcaraz plays freely, like someone who has a whole life ahead of him, without scars from the past, unaware of the rush, free of frustrations.
The congenital joviality of his tennis proposal also has a lot to do with this, with the freshness of the newcomer.
Alcaraz has already defeated all four of them, the Greek up to three times.
The Murcian has played five final tables of Grand Slam tournaments, with the quarterfinals of the 2021 United States Open as the ceiling.
It was there that he struck the first big blow of his career, by beating Tsitsipas in the third round, although he had already won the ATP 250 in Umag.
Alcaraz won 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 0-6 and 7-6 (5), in four hours and seven minutes.
It is the second longest match of his life, three minutes shy of the time he battled against Matteo Berrettini before falling in the third round of the last Australian Open.
There are 15 meetings in the
majors
, four of them consuming the five sets.
It's 10 wins.
For the first time in his career, he will be among the favorites to lift the cup at Roland Garros.
He rests in Rome, after winning the Conde de Godó and the Mutua Madrid Open.
"I want to win my second Masters 1000 on clay," he said in an interview with this newspaper and four other Spanish media outlets after winning in Miami.
Mission accomplished.
He will arrive in Paris with ten consecutive wins and, right now, waiting for what Tsitsipas does at the Foro Italico, with more wins than anyone this season: 28.
Only three losses: the one mentioned against Berrettini, the Indian Wells semifinals against Nadal and the second round of Monte Carlo against Sebastian Korda.
"I am really excited to win a Grand Slam. It is better to rest, recover from my ankle and my foot and be in Paris at 100%," he said this Sunday after annihilating Alexander Zverev, number three in the world, in the Madrid final. .
In New York, after beating Tsitsipas, he had to retire when he lost 6-3, 3-1 to Felix Auger-Aliassime due to a fibrillar rupture in the quadriceps of his left leg.
He had chained 12 hours and a half in the previous three games.
Intense and meticulous preseason
From November 13, 2021, the date on which he won the Youth Masters, where he showed that he was already several lengths above the other seven competitors, until January 17 he did not compete.
He was going to do it in the Davis Cup Finals, but he contracted Covid.
He had a few days off before undergoing an intense and meticulous six-week preseason, with plenty of aerobic and muscle-strengthening work.
Power and resistance.
The change in his physique was superb.
The results are already palpable.
In the semifinals of the Conde de Godó he spent three hours and 40 minutes on court and saved two match points against Alex de Miñaur.
A few hours later he only allowed Pablo Carreño five games in the final.
In Madrid, even though it was a best-of-sets tournament, he spent two hours and 39 minutes in the Manolo Santana to defeat Nadal and three hours and 35 minutes to beat Djokovic.
He has a physique, head and exquisite tennis, different from all the others.
He improves in every game.
The first two rounds in the Caja Mágica, perhaps due to adaptation to the altitude, did not shine.
He did it when he needed it most, when the tournament was going into heat.
He was better in the quarters, against Djokovic, than in the round of 16, against Nadal, where the fall at the beginning of the second set disturbed him until he took him out of the match for a while.
With the Serbian he saw himself as a more stable player, less conditioned by his state of mind.
In the final he was irresistible.
He has won in 10 of his 16 games against tennis players from the 'top 10', an elite he joined after winning the title in Barcelona and where he jumped from ninth to sixth place on Monday
.
In 2020 he lost to Aleksandar Vukic in the first round of qualifying at Roland Garros.
Last year he made it to the last 32 of the final draw, where he beached Jan-Lennard Struff.
That is far away, because the boy has grown at lightning speed.
With all the arguments that he handles in his definitive explosion, does anyone doubt that we are facing a serious candidate for the title in the edition that begins on May 22?
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tennis
Carlos Alcaraz
Novak Djokovic
Rafael Nadal