because Rafa is unique (and even Alcaraz is not comparable) – Corriere.it

C’ only one tennis player who at Roland Garros says s’il vous plat e merci to the ball boys. And not an excited rookie; the first and almost certainly the last champion to win thirteen editions of the most important tournament on clay, now underway – barring always possible surprises – towards the fourteenth title. A non-human statistic. Because if you win thirteen out of thirteen finals it means that you are not just a great athlete; you are an irreproducible model of intelligence, loyalty, fairness, moral strength.

The other night – absurd to play until two in the morning, absurd that such a match would be a quarter-final like Cilic-Rublev and Ruud-Rohe – Rafael Nadal confirmed all the characteristics that make him one of the greatest sportsmen in history. He has made a masterpiece of tactics, confusing a Djokovic clearly favored by the bookmakers, who obviously remains the prodigious tennis player who, but did not understand much of anything the other night. Not only. Nadal applauded the best shots of his rival (as at the beginning of his career he almost never did, and had instead already done in the second round with Auger-Aliassime, the Canadian younger than 15 years and at least eight centimeters taller, beaten in the fifth set). As always, he avoided gestures of anger and blatant protests, even when on a break point the referee called him out a backhand kick that the Philippe Chatrier fans (lined up with Rafa) had seemed on the line. And he showed that competitive ferocity that makes him almost impossible to beat at Roland Garros. The worst spite that can be done to the young Alcaraz is to approach him. Because Alcaraz is a very strong tennis player, and will win many Grand Slams. But a champion like Rafael Nadal is born every hundred years.