On Sunday, coinciding with the final, Murcia Region Day is celebrated. And Carlos Alcaraz, proud murcianico He remembers that there are “the UCAM in basketball and the indoor soccer teams”, also “the gastronomy and the lands”, without forgetting the music, Viva Sweden and Arde Bogotá. So “now”, he says before journalists after the tough fight against Jannik Sinner (2-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 and 6-3), is “the moment”, his moment . It transmits a deep decompression after passing through the cold water bath and the relaxation process. Carpe Diem: “We have already put ourselves on the map. We are a small city, but we have everything; I hope I can deliver a victory. “We are in a moment of splendor and we must take advantage of it.”
Rewind number three to his first visit to Roland Garros when he was a child and 12 years old. He then played on a removable court under the Eiffel Tower. “I have special feelings about this tournament. When he finished school he would run home to turn on the TV and watch the games. I have seen a lot; Rafa’s, of course. And now I want to put my name on that list of Spanish players who have won them, not just Rafa: Ferrero, Moyà, Costa…”, he points out in the conference room, becoming the 15th national representative (between men and women) to reach the final in Paris.
He has achieved it after a “very tight, very complicated” struggle, punctuated by errors on both sides; 58 him – with a contrast of 65 winners -, and 44 the rival. But he clarifies: “Playing in the semifinals of a Grand Slam is not easy, and it demands a very high level of physical, mental and tennis demands from you, and also for four hours. In each blow you leave a lot of energy, you go back and forth all the time, you change positions, and we have both had ramps.”
In any case, Alcaraz has already shown that at 21 years old, and despite the fact that he is still developing and has a very wide margin for progression, he is a tough tennis player to fight. Specifically, his brief history on the elite circuit reflects that he has only lost one match of the 11 that he has settled in five sets; It was against Matteo Berrettini in Australia. “That’s when you have to leave everything on the track, raise the level. You cannot show weakness, weakness or tiredness. And that statistic helps me have peace of mind. If the other wants to beat me, he knows that he will have to play at a very high level,” he continues.
The earliest ‘chameleon’
At the same time, he stops at the episode last year against Djokovic, when he collapsed. “Now I am mentally stronger. I know that if I’m there, the cramps will go away. “Now I know what I have to do in these situations,” she says; “It has been very complicated, but I am very happy to have pulled it off, to know that I have learned from the situations I have experienced previously, those in which I was not well. This time I was positive the entire time, I didn’t leave the game at any time. So today (this Friday) I have been able to verify that I am not tripping over the same stone. “It has been very complete, very good on my part.”
With access to the final this Sunday, the Spaniard adds another notch of precocity to his card. After playing and winning the US Open (2022) and Wimbledon (2023), he is the youngest tennis player in history to reach the three surfaces of his sport. Until now, it was Andre Agassi who held the record, having competed in Roland Garros, New York (both in 1990) and London (1992) at the age of 22 years and one month. Alcaraz, in addition, has invested less time than the North American, who in his day improved the record of the Swede Björn Borg (22 years and two months). “I want to be one of the best, so I have to be a good player on all surfaces, like Roger, Rafa, Novak have been… I consider myself to adapt very well to all styles. “I grew up playing on clay, but I feel more comfortable on hard courts,” he says.
And the player from El Palmar adds, at that moment without yet knowing who his rival will be, that he has not felt that the fight with Sinner has been an early final, and predicts that the last chapter of the tournament is going to be “very tough”, so who will face it in the same line. “I’m going to have to fight it,” he anticipates, at the same time that he projects the same ambitious message as always, without hot topics. Does he see himself with the trophy in his hands? “It’s a beautiful image, of course I imagine it. We are one step away, the most complicated. Winning the finals is complicated, but I always say they are not there to play in, but to win. Although it is still a long journey…”, she says goodbye happily. And exhausted. You can see the beating he has on his body.
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