Alcaraz | A year of vertigo

A little over a year ago Carlos Alcaraz exploded at the US Open in a match for which he became known worldwide. He won in the third round in five sets against Stefanos Tsitsipas, at that time number three in the ranking. He was the 55th and was 18 years old. For this reason and for the exhibition of strength and tennis that he gave to the spectators of the Arthur Ashe, his feat went around the world. “I never saw anyone hit the ball so hard,” said the Greek.who lost twice more against Murcia in the following season (Miami and Barcelona).

Alcaraz accumulated precocious milestones and carved out a niche for himself in the elite. The confidence that gave him that performance in his room majorin which he reached the quarterfinals and withdrew due to injury when losing to Auger-Aliassime, shot up his performance on tour. He made it to the semifinals in Vienna, with a quarter-final win against another top-10 player, Matteo Berrettini. In Paris, Bercy defeated Jannik Sinner (9th), before winning the NextGen ATP Finals in Milan, where he defeated Sebastian Korda in the title match. “My dream is to be number one in the world, so I will work for that. Beyond winning this tournament, that is my goal and I will continue to focus on it”, he said then. “Winning the NextGen Finals means a lot to have motivation for next year and to continue training hard, improving. And the next ATP Finals are a very cool goal, very difficult, I would say almost impossible, but we will fight and we will work to achieve it”, he added. Perhaps he never imagined that ten months later, he would already be classified.

His goal was to be top-15 and he finished the course as number 32 after the disappointment of not being able to play the Davis Cup Finals with Spain when he contracted COVID just before it began. He arrived as 31st in the ranking at the beginning of 2022, and after falling the third round of the Australian Open in five sets against Berrettini, won the ATP 250 in Rio de Janeiro, the tournament in which he had obtained his first ATP victory (he beat Albert Ramos), two years earlier. In Brazil he lifted the second trophy of his career, after the one in Umag (July 2021) and entered the top-20. “I am prepared to enter the next level,” he warned. the prodigy from El Palmar, who was already tenth in the race for the Masters Cup.

the big take off

He finally made his debut with the Navy at the Davis Cup, with a victory against the Romanian Copil in the qualifying round that was played in Marbella. Then came takeoff. He was a semifinalist in Indian Wells (he had Nadal on the ropes), and the first Spanish champion in Miami, where he beat Ruud, his rival for the title and world leadership at the US Open, in the final. After the premature stumble in Montecarlo, against Korda, he triumphed and got into the top-10 in Barcelona, ​​against Carreño; and in Madrid he won his second Masters 1,000, against Zverev, before being defeated by the German in the Roland Garros quarters.

“I look at the ranking and it’s amazing. I train to win places, but it’s not the most important thing, ”he warned before falling in the round of 16 at Wimbledon against Sinner, who later beat him in the Umag final. Carlitos had just lost Hamburg against Musseti, but with the prize of being number five. As four he played in Montreal and Cincinnati with modest results that did not predict his excellent performance at the US Open. Since that one against Tsitsipas, he has accumulated 63 wins, five titles and the youngest number one in history. Great.