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Carlos Alcaraz has learned to live clinging to the epic in Madrid. If in the quarterfinals he overcame the pain to defeat Rafa Nadal for the first time in his life, yesterday he enlarged his figure to unsuspected limits to stop the world number one, Novak Djokovic, in his tracks. The Murcian got into the final of the Mutua Madrid Open for the first time in his career after an intense duel of three and a half hours, the longest in the tournament so far, and is aiming directly at what would be his fourth title of the season. Whatever happens, he will leave the Caja Mágica converted into the sixth ranked player and second in the race to the ATP Finals.
Carlitos is, without a doubt, one of the great protagonists of the tournament. Acclaimed by a crowd that adores him as a new idol and in a state of grace with his game. But he still has to finish the job. He lacks one last hurdle that bears the name of Alexander Zverev, who beat Stefanos Tsitsipas in the other semifinal in another competitive duel that extended the day until dawn.
German, current champion, reaches the final in Madrid again despite the fact that his season was not going in the best way. The player seems to have a certain chemistry with the clay of the Spanish capital and his game shows it. The percentages of him and the kicks of him are being deadly for his rivals. He had a hard time finding the rhythm of proper play at the start of the tournament, that’s why he won in three sets against Croatian Marin Cilic. Then it was Lorenzo Musetti’s turn, in a match without much history due to the fact that at the beginning of the second set the Italian was forced to retire after a injury in the leg.
In the quarterfinals, he easily got rid of number 10 in the world ranking, Felix Auger-Aliassime, in two sets. Yesterday it was the turn of the Greek Tsitsipas, his great rival. He arrived at the meeting with a 7-3 balance in favor of the Greek, who this time could not keep up with the pace set by the Hamburg player. Today in the final he will face an Alcaraz whom he won last year in the two times that they have met on the track to date: once first round in Acapulco and a semifinal in Vienna. Between the two games the Spanish could barely add ten games. But the story now is very different. To begin with, those two games were played on hard courts. And the alcaraz since then it has little to do with the phenomenon that impresses wherever it goes.
“What happened?”
The growth of Alcaraz in Madrid has been constant. From the first round against the Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili, through the victory against Cameron Norrie and the last two consecutive miracles against Nadal and Djokovic, the Murcian has combined technique and effort to continue breaking barriers. There seems to be no limit to his growth, but he needs one more step to enter the gold book of the Madrid tournament. Conquering the Mutua Madrid Open would mean his second Masters 1,000 for him in just over a month after the one he won in Miami. Whether or not that triumph comes, he continues to break record after record. Yesterday he became the first player to defeat two tennis legends like Nadal and Djokovic on clay in the same tournament. At the same time, he snatched Nadal another record, the youngest player in history to play a final in Madrid.
No one imagined such rapid progress except him: “I feel ready to compete with the best in the world, I’m among them,” he declared at the press conference after the semifinal, making it clear that he does not intend to stop his growth and that he is clear about the path to the top of world tennis. «I always say it, you have to try to go for the games. In the decisive moments is when you see the difference between the good players and the top players. That’s where you can see what makes Djokovic, Rafa or Roger Federer special. I want to make that same difference because it is the key in decisive matches. I want to play aggressive. And if I lose, I leave with the feeling that I have gone for the game, that I will try to improve myself and do better in the future. It’s a star word.
The fight to win the trophy will be tough between two youngsters who are already a reality in this sport. They will be the constancy Y regularity of the finalists those who end up uneven a very balanced final. The new generation shows signs that it is getting closer.
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism