Carlos Alcaraz Seeks Advice from Tennis Legend Martina Navratilova to Enhance His Game

After resolving the premiere on Tuesday against Jeremy Chardy, with ears wide open and always ready to receive advice, Carlos Alcaraz insisted to Martina Navratilova during the post-match gathering that she give him some recommendation to polish his game. “You do everything very well, but if you ask me, I would tell you to go a little more to the net,” replied the legendary champion, owner of nine Wimbledon trophies and also the Wimbledon master key. After all, no one, male or female, has won the tournament of tournaments as many times as she has, and the Spanish, a good student, is excited to receive guidance from someone with such a pedigree.

“Well, we try to learn from the best. She, if I remember correctly, has won nine times here, so if she tells you to get on the net, you have to! I think she hasn’t been bad for me. I also consider myself a player who likes to go up to the net, so we are going to try to do it more often”, answers the number one to EL PAÍS, for whom it has been enough to compete at idle against the Frenchman Alexander Müller (6-4 , 7-6(2) and 6-3, in 2h 33m) to enter the third round of the great British, in which he will face Chilean Nicolás Jarry this Saturday (2:30 p.m., Movistar). With a job and an unusual hierarchy for his early age, Alcaraz has dispatched the Frenchman and put into practice the recommendation of the legend: London usually rewards daring.

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If on the first day he barely peeked into the net nine times, in this second intervention in the tournament he has done so 29 times, with 24 hits. The record also easily exceeds those he signed in the Queen’s preparatory school against Jiri Lehecka (9), Grigor Dimitrov (12), Sebastian Korda (15) and Alex de Miñaur (18); Only against Arthur Rinkdernech, in his first appearance on the green, he signed a higher figure (35). Alcaraz knows that courage and stepping forward are two essential elements for the conquest of this Wimbledon.

“For me, today’s game adds double,” he specifies, since he has resolved more by efficiency than by brilliance. “80% of the games of the year you are not going to play it the way you want. And, speaking for myself, I want to be on the side of the very good; That’s the difference between the good ones and the very good ones. The days that you are not feeling well or that you do not have a good feeling, you have to move them forward somehow, with attitude, with physique or in another way you have to take them out to have another opportunity the next day, to change those feelings, ”he continues the one from El Palmar, forced to link two duels due to the incidence of rain on the tournament in the previous days.

Golf with Sergio García

“It sucks a bit,” he says spontaneously; “But I don’t think it’s going to affect me. It may cost a little more to recover, being a great and competing in five sets, but you have to take it in the best possible way. Ma it has been good that we have not gone to a fourth or fifth set to be fresher tomorrow [por hoy]; we have to adapt to what is coming, and from there try to do things in the best possible way”.

Jarry, during the match of the first round against Cecchinato.ANDREW COULDRIDGE (REUTERS)

Accompanied in London by his father, his grandfather and for a couple of days by his brothers, Alcaraz practiced some holes a couple of days ago with the golfer Sergio García because, he says, it is essential to find a moment to purify the mind during the competition . “Disconnecting is always good and more so in a Grand Slam. When I rest or when I can, I like to play golf, it isolates me a lot from tennis. Being in contact with nature, walking or walking with my team also clears me up a lot and helps me when it’s time to get back on the track; otherwise, I don’t disconnect and I’m thinking about tennis 24 hours a day, and that’s not positive either, ”he points out.

He now faces Jarry, a 1.98 tower that threatens in the best moment of his career. Suspended in 2020 for 11 months for a contaminated vitamin complex, the Chilean had to start from scratch and today he progresses with the best ranking of his career (28th). In fact, he already engaged Alcaraz this season in the Rio de Janeiro arena; there he stole a set from him and showed that in addition to the deck to draw, he has remarkable virtues in the exchange. “He’s a tremendous player, but I’m happy to have this opportunity to compete against him. We already know each other a bit and it’s going to be an interesting game. I wouldn’t compare it with the game in Rio, because they are different moments and surfaces”, concedes the South American, whose grandfather –Jaime Fillol, 14th in 1974 and winner of six titles– was a tennis pioneer in his country, something like Santana from Chile ; “I go with a blank page and the main thing is to keep adding. I know that I can hurt him and I am going to look for the game. He is human.”

DJOKOVIC, THE MAGICIAN OF THE ‘TIE-BREAK’

A. C. | Londres

At the edge of eleven at night in London, very close to the deadline, Novak Djokovic sealed his pass to the round of 16 by beating the Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka 6-3, 6-1 and 7-6 (5). The Serbian, who is chasing his eighth trophy and therefore equaling Roger Federer’s all-time record in the tournament, now awaits a tough clash with the hard plate Hubert Hurkacz, a powerful server and semifinalist in the edition two years ago.

In conflict with the clock, for that reason to avoid having to jump back onto the track on Saturday to conclude the match, Djokovic piloted the duel with authority, although in the final stretch Wawrinka stirred up. In any case, there is no more reliable player in the tiebreaker than the Serbian, who this season has already won 12 in a row, with a record of 12-1. In the tournament he has already resolved three in his favor, previously against Pedro Cachín and Jordan Thompson.

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2023-07-08 03:15:00
#Wimbledon #Alcaraz #Navratilovas #dictate #Sports