MURCIA. Carlos Alcaraz Garfia, the emerging talent of world tennis, goes in the footsteps of Rafa Nadal, yes has equaled Dominic Thiem, Andrey Rublev and Diego Schwartzman Y added Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipás, Alexander Zverev, and Matteo Berrettini regarding the premieres in the final draw of a tournament on the Grand Slam circuit.
The young tennis player from El Palmar, who debuted at the Australian Open at 17 years, 9 months and 4 days and he did it by winning with authority by 6-1, 6-4 and 6-4 in just 1 hour and 54 minutes to the Dutch Botic Van de Zandschulp, he is earning praise from fellow professionals in his own right and what Nadal said about him a few days ago, after training together in Melbourne, is no longer strange.
“He is going to be a benchmark for tennis and Spanish sports in the coming years. He is very young, has humility and capacity for work 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 their day they also said about Manacor and those who expressed themselves that way then were not very wrong. With Alcaraz, time will determine what he is capable of, but for the moment he is on the right track and he showed it in his premiere at Melbourne Park.
In his second year as a racket professional Juan Carlos Ferrero’s ward does not stop progressing and for now, he already knows what a Grand Slam is from within and will continue to prove 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 it at the 1999 Roland Garros tournament Y Djokovic, which is number 1, at the 2005 Australian Open.
The same happened to the Russian Medvedev, currently fourth player in the world, at the 2017 Australian Open; to greek Tsitsipás, which is number 6 and which Alcaraz could be called in in the third round in Melbourne, at Roland Garros 2017; to german Zverev, number 7, also in Paris a year before; and to italian Berrettini, number 10 of the ATP, at the Australian Open 2018.
Of the current top 10 only four players made their debut raising their arms in their first meeting in a tournament of the highest category.
Nadal spent three rounds at Wimbledon 2003 and the Mallorcan, who today is the second best in the world according to the ranking and who, like his friend Federer, holds 20 Grand Slam titles, then beat the Croatian Mario Ancic by 6-3, 6-4, 4-6 and 6 -4 and British Lee Childs 6-2, 6-4 and 6-3 before being eliminated by Thai Paradorn Srichaphan 4-6, 6-3, 3-6 and 2-6.
Meanwhile, the Austrian Thiem, current number 3 in the world, 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 the Argentine Schwartzman, number 9, debuted with victory at the 2014 Roland Garros.
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.”