BarcelonaThe day has come. A new generation has broken the ceiling that for more than a decade no one seemed able to break. The era of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic triumvirate is coming to an end and the player who wins the US Open this Sunday will be the new world number 1. On one side of the track, 19-year-old Carlos Alcaraz. In front of him, the Norwegian Casper Ruud, 23.
Without Djokovic, cornered for not wanting to listen to science and get vaccinated, with an injured Federer who has not played for months and with Nadal suffering from back and foot pain, the US Open has served heralding a new era, right in a season that began with Christmas extending its glory years further. If the first three Grand Slams of the season served to show that Nadal and Djokovic still have the rope to continue waging war, the revolution that has broken out in the United States has been brewing under their noses. It’s not just the age and problems of the three big dominators of tennis in recent years, it’s also the level of play of these youngsters who want to defeat the men whose posters were in their room not so long ago.
The final at Flushing Meadows (10 p.m., Eurosport) will serve for either Ruud or Alcaraz to win their first major tournament and, incidentally, climb to the top of the ATP rankings. Alcaraz, 19, arrived in New York as the world number four. A win this Sunday would allow him to advance three positions on Monday, while Ruud would climb six positions in a single tournament, which would mean an absolute record. “It’s amazing to be able to fight for big things, it’s my first time in the final. I see the first position in the ranking, but at the same time it’s still very far. Ruud has a great level and he deserves to be in the final,” said Alcaraz, who added: “I’ve dreamed more about being world number 1 than winning a major tournament.” So far he hasn’t achieved either, but it seems impossible to imagine that he won’t if he plays like this at 19. If he wins the final, he will in fact be the youngest No. 1 of all time. At the moment, this record belongs to the Australian Lleyton Hewitt, who reached the top of the ranking in 2001, at the age of twenty years and nine months. The second youngest to date was Russian Marat Safin, who did so at twenty years and ten months, just before the start of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic’s reign.
Tiafoe, a digne rival
Alcaraz has reached the final following the longest path: stringing together three consecutive five-set matches. First, against Croatian Marin Cilic in the round of 16. And if his quarter-final match against the Italian Jannik Sinner was the second longest in the history of the tournament, with more than five hours of suffering, in the semi-finals he also needed five sets to overcome the local revelation, the American Frances Tiafoe: 6-7, 6-3, 6-1, 6-7 and 6-3. Alcaraz is aiming to become the youngest US Open champion since Pete Sampras in 1990 at 19 years and one month. The young disciple of Juan Carlos Ferrero, who debuted on the professional circuit at the age of 14 and this 2022 has won his first tournaments, two of them Masters 1,000, is one step away from making his big leap forward on the fast track of Flushing Meadows with his spectacular game. “I’ve never faced an opponent who can move so well on the court,” Tiafoe, 22, said Friday. The 22-year-old American won the first set thanks to his devastating first serve, but Alcaraz later showed his trademark mental fortitude. However, in the fourth set, the Murcian player met again with a Tiafoe who took away absolutely all tie breaks who has played in this tournament. In the fifth, Alcaraz made the odds look good.
Every time a point was extended, Alcaraz won it. He reached all the balls and returned impossible shots. Instead, if Tiafoe hit short points, especially with his serve, he was dreaming. The son of two war refugees from Sierra Leone, Tiafoe has thrilled local audiences. He learned to play tennis thanks to the work of his father, a bricklayer who went on to become a watchman of the sports club he had worked on building. Few tennis players with such humble origins have made their way to the semi-finals of a Grand Slam. And today Michelle Obama was applauding him. “Tennis won. Of course, it hurts to lose, but it was a great show. Being able to play in front of these people pushes me to work harder,” said a Tiafoe who admitted that “in the coming years Alcaraz will be a big problem for to all of us.”
Casper Ruud’s second final
Alcaraz’s rival will be Casper Ruud, who reaches the final through the big gate. If Alcaraz needs five sets, the Scandinavian opts for the fast track. Russian Karen Katchanov defeated him in the semi-final in four sets (7-6, 6-2, 5-7, 6-2), but had previously beaten Berrettini in three sets in the quarter-finals. The Norwegian has been plugging away as the tournament has progressed, following a five-sets scare in the round of 16 against Tommy Paul. In the semi-finals he made almost no mistakes. Ruud, the first Norwegian player to reach a major tournament final when he lost to Rafa Nadal earlier this year, will now look to conquer the world number one spot if he defeats Alcaraz. At 23, he has won nine titles, but none in a Masters 1,000 tournament. The disciple of Rafa Nadal’s academy in Manacor, where he spent many summers training, needs a first triumph to show that he can be one of the players who dominate world tennis in the coming years. The experts have no doubt that who will be there will certainly be Alcaraz.
