Carlos Alcaraz Garfia goes after the footsteps of Rafa Nadal, has already equaled Dominic Thiem, Andrey Rublev and Diego Schwartzman the final draw of a Grand Slam tournament as the winners in its premiere, something that Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, did not achieve, Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipás, Alexander Zverev Y Matteo Berrettini, six top-10 players on the current ATP roster.
The young tennis player from El Palmar, who debuted in the Australian Open with 17 years, 9 months and 4 days winning with authority by 6-1, 6-4 and 6-4In just 1 hour and 54 minutes, the Dutch Botic Van de Zandschulp, is earning in his own right the praise of fellow professionals and what Nadal said a few days ago, after training together in Melbourne, is no longer strange.
“He is going to be a benchmark for Spanish tennis and sport in the coming years. He is very young, has humility and work capacity and I predict a bright future for him because he has a great base to aspire to one of the best in the world,” he declared the Balearic on the Murcian.
These are words that in his day were also said of the Manacor and those who expressed themselves thus were not very wrong. With Alcaraz, time will determine what he is capable of doing, but for the moment is on the right track and he showed it at its premiere at Melbourne Park.
In his second year as a racket professional, the pupil of Juan Carlos Ferrero He does not stop progressing and for now he already knows what a Grand Slam is from within and will continue to verify it, something that many of the greats in the history of this sport could not do, who fell at the first exchange in their debut in a “major”.
These are the cases, for example, of the Swiss Federer, who has won 20 Grand Slam titles; and the Serbian Djokovic, who has 17, but lost in his first match of this level.
Federer, now fifth in the ATP, did so at the 1999 Roland Garros tournament and Djokovic, who is number 1, at the 2005 Australian Open.
The same happened to Russian Medvedev, currently fourth player in the world, at the 2017 Australian Open; Greek Tsitsipás, who is number 6 and Alcaraz could be measured in the third round in Melbourne, at the 2017 Roland Garros; the German Zverev, number 7, also in Paris a year earlier; and the Italian Berrettini, number 10 of the ATP, in the Australian Open of 2018.
Of the current top 10 only four players made their debut by raising their arms in their first meeting in a tournament of the highest category.
Nadal spent three rounds at Wimbledon in 2003 and the Mallorcan, who today is the second best in the world according to the ranking and who, like his friend Federer, saves 20 Grand Slam titles, then beat Croatian Mario Ancic 6-3, 6-4, 4-6 and 6-4 and Britain’s Lee Childs 6-2, 6-4 and 6-3 before being eliminated by Thai Paradorn Srichaphan by 4-6, 6-3, 3-6 and 2-6.
While, the Austrian Thiem, current world number 3, reached the second round at the 2014 Australian Open; the Russian Rublev, number 8, did the same in that same tournament three years later; and Argentinean Schwartzman, number 9, debuted with victory at the Roland Garros in 2014.
These are comparisons in which Alcaraz also comes out well and his goal is to get a little closer to his idol, the one who sees in Murcia what he is today, “a benchmark of Spanish tennis and sport.”