The year in which Carlos Alcaraz proclaimed the revolution

With the conquest of his first big in New York, he became the youngest number 1 in history. Handle all the arguments to mark a time.

• US Open Carlos Alcaraz’s shoes are auctioned and fly to New York
• David Ferrer “Now, since my new role, the hardest thing is to say no”

The tennis player of the year, by absolute unanimity, did not even need to complete the calendar. An abdominal injury during the Paris-Bercy quarterfinals forced him to leave against Holger Rune and put an end to his extraordinary season. The second youngest winner of the United States Open in the professional era, champion of two Masters 1000 (Miami and Madrid) and two ATP 500 (Rio and Barcelona), and the earliest to rise to number 1 in the world would cause a drop in the ATP Finals and the Davis Cup Finals, the latter tournament that he could not play in 2021 either, then due to the positive for covid.

Such was the brilliance of Carlos Alcaraz that, even from the chest, completing his six weeks of convalescence, he took over the stage in Turin, during the tournament that brings together the eight best of the year, where he went to be invested as the first of the class. Neither Rafael Nadal in Stefanos TsitsipasEliminated in the group stage, they managed to balance the equation that could allow them to evict him from the attic. Although in 2021 he had already left enough indications to count on him for the greatest achievements in the recently concluded course, not even in his own environment was a similar explosion being considered. Yes, Alcaraz had won his first title in Umag, knocked down Tsitsipas in the third round of the US Open and won, with the cap, the NextGen ATP Finals, but, in rigorously qualitative terms, he was still 32nd in the ranking. , a racket more than promising, but whose true impact was yet to be determined.

He arrived on the US hard track tour in the spring with his first ATP 500, won in Rio. In Indian Wells, he demanded a cracked rib from Nadal to knock him down in the semifinals, after a match that had nothing to do with the one played a year earlier at the Mutua Madrid Open, the one in which the left-hander won against an opponent still with obvious signs of acne. In the Californian desert Alcaraz envy with everything, in the preamble to the victory in the Masters 1000 in Miami, where he defeated in the final Casper Ruud. Stronger after six weeks of preseason in which he did specific work hand in hand with Alberto Lled, Juanjo Moreno y Sergio Hernandezthe three professionals responsible for sculpting the resounding figure with which he was seen at the Australian Open, where he neutralized him Matthew Berrettini In the third round, not without fighting until the tiebreaker of the fifth set, Alcaraz was traveling by rocket.

the spring feast

A minimal shock in the transition to clay, with an early defeat in Monte Carlo against Sebastian Cordagave way to another feast: champion of the Count of God, after facing two match points in the semifinals against Alex de Miaurand at the Mutua Madrid Open, leaving behind three exquisite corpses: Nadal, Novak Djokovic y Alexander Zverev.

The victory in Barcelona meant his entry into the top 10, but even the defeats offered a fruitful reading. after falling before Lorenzo Musetti in the final of the ATP 500 in Hamburg, he appeared in the top 5, being the second youngest tennis player of this millennium to do so, next to Nadal.

The best was yet to come. His performance at Roland Garros (quarter-finals against Zverev) and Wimbledon (eighth against Jannik Sinner) fell within logic. Even the subsequent lost finals, because in addition to Hamburg he was left without the title in Umag (again Sinner). He won’t stick his head out too much in Montreal either (Tommy Paulinput) and Cincinnati (Cameron Norrie, rooms). Flushing Meadows, the venue that had seen him a year earlier topple Tsitsipas, then number three in the rankings, was the scene of her impressive growth spurt. Three matches of five sets, Marin Cilic in eighths, Sinner in quarters and Frances Tiafoe in the semifinals, before touching port by beating four to Casper Ruud in the end. The match against Sinner, with a match point saved in between, deserved the consideration of the ATP as the best of 2022.

In the year of the withdrawal of Roger Federer, which darkened the face of a good part of the fans, the irruption of Alcaraz has transcended the boundaries of tennis. The leader of a new time, also at the head of a generation that threatens to leave the one that preceded him in suspense, has entered more than 10 million dollars in prizes and six million from sponsoring firms, among which are Rolex. , Nike, Babolat, BMW and Isdin.

The irrepressible push of his youth is accompanied by a renewing spirit. He does not lack power or vigor in his game, in the heat of tennis that prevails, but he also has imagination and commitment to the show. No one proposes like him, bold and precise with the left, nor does he leave a similar trace of joviality and sympathy. Well surrounded, with Juan Carlos Ferrero in command of operations, he manages all the arguments to mark an era.