When we talk about tennis, soon a name comes to mind: Reef Nadal. The one from Manacor is not only the best tennis player in the history of Spain, but he can boast of have made history worldwide, but 2021 has been a year to forget. His injuries have marked a course in which he was only able to lift two titles (Rome and Barcelona), in which he has not enjoyed continuity and had to undergo surgery … while an 18-year-old has punched in the table.
And is that Carlos Alcaraz placeholder image has been able to show that there is generational change. The Murcian tennis player, in contrast to Nadal, has lived an unbeatable course, confirming not only that he has been the great revelation of the year worldwide, but that he is one of the players with the most future. At only 18 years old, he has been the athlete who more positions has climbed in the year -winning 109- and becoming champion of the Next Generation ATP Finals as confirmation of what is to come.
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Alcaraz, with an ATP title this course in addition to the victory as ‘young master’, has managed to go from the position 141 of the ATP ranking from which the season began to position 32, in which the course has finished. It was the great surprise of the season, playing brilliant, aggressive, precious and, at the same time, effective tennis, without losing sight of his great weapon: his mentality. Always a winner, always a fighter, always aware that the limit will be where he wants to put it.
His great victory in the Next Gen has earned him a name worldwide. This triumph makes him the only player in history under the age of 18 to be able to win thirty-two games in the same year. Only Rafa Nadal had been able to reach thirty, a record now broken by the Murcian, which shows the qualities of an Alcaraz who is called to achieve great heights. One of the tennis players of the future -and already present- who has come to stay.
The season has been incredible for the Spaniard, who has signed a year to remember. He started well at the Australian Open, becoming the third youngest Spaniard of all time to get into the final box of a ‘grande’ for, just a few months later, make history in the ATP 250 Great Ocean Race: his victory against David Goffin made him the youngest tennis player capable of defeating a top-15, breaking the record he held Richard Gasquet.
Precisely against the French he lived the best moment of the course, because after defeating him 6-2 and 6-2, became champion of the Umag tournament Or, what is the same, he achieved the first ATP title of his career. If we add to that that he managed to get into the final table of the four ‘big’ – with the quarterfinals of the US Open, where he retired due to injury, as the best result – and that he has advanced more than a hundred positions in the ATP ranking We are talking about the year of consecration of Alcaraz.
Alcaraz, who also won one round in Australia and Wimbledon, and another two at Roland Garros, lived his great grief in the Davis Cup, where he could not compete with Spain after testing positive for covid-19. But, at 18, the future ahead of him is more than promising. The Murcian player has shown that he has tennis to make history and 2022 looks like his big year: the moment to confirm why you are called to be the player of the future.
