His name is Gonzalo Bueno, he is 19 years old and he leaves the training court at the Pala Alpitour in Turin happier than castanets. “This is incredible,” he introduces as the crowd heads in the opposite direction, where the security personnel draw a corridor with the bodies so that Carlos Alcaraz and the members of his team can retire to another room without complications. In a completely different reality from that of the Murcian, despite being only a year younger than him, the young tennis player has…
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His name is Gonzalo Bueno, he is 19 years old and he leaves the training court at the Pala Alpitour in Turin happier than castanets. “This is incredible,” he introduces as the crowd heads in the opposite direction, where the security personnel draw a corridor with the bodies so that Carlos Alcaraz and the members of his team can retire to another room without complications. In a reality completely different from that of the Murcian, despite being only a year younger than him, the young tennis player says that he is from Trujillo, in the north of Peru, and that he started playing because one day a teacher saw talent in him and he wanted follow in his brother’s footsteps. Now, suddenly, he finds himself in beautiful Italy and fighting with Alcaraz, who has chosen him as a sparring partner for the last three sessions.
“Last year I finished in the top-10 of the juniors,” he tells this newspaper. “And the ATP chose me to come here and rehearse with the best. This week I’m hitting on Carlitos a lot, because he seems to like how I play. When we were little we had met in some tournaments, but now… He is at another level, he is gifted. I think he was born for this,” Bueno continues; “What impresses me the most is his physique, how he gets to the ball; He reaches one, and another, and the next… he is very fast, very elastic, very strong and very explosive. It’s everything one would like to be. Sometimes he throws balls that the others normally can’t reach, but he does, he follows the point and makes it more difficult for you. He is very polite, and he gives you a good vibe.”
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The excited look of Bueno, today the 389th on the circuit, is that of the one who has dreamed so many times of reaching where his partner has arrived, who parades seriously, thinking that this Wednesday (2:30 p.m., Movistar Deporte) he will risk it heads or tails, and in which there will be no margin for error against the imp Andrey Rublev. He lost on Monday against the German Alexander Zverev, so the format of this master event now forces him to defeat the Russian, because otherwise his chances of getting through the group stage and reaching the semifinals on Saturday would be remote, very remote, missing a final duel with Daniil Medvedev on Friday. The task is not simple, and even less so taking into account the complexity of the present.
Alcaraz and Bueno, during training at the Pala Alpitour.
He didn’t go through Alcaraz for a long time and, if that weren’t enough, he didn’t like the drastic jump to the Turin track at all. Carlitos is only 20 years old and has only sailed for two years in the elite, but at the same time he has enough “experience,” he emphasizes, to have learned to interpret some keys and raise his voice, if necessary. He did it on Monday, after falling. She is not convinced where she moves these days, and noted: “She is the fastest of the year, that’s for sure. And I do not know why. We come from playing all year on very slow hard courts, so I don’t understand it. I’m not going to comment on whether the tournament should be outdoors or indoors, but I don’t know why they choose this surface [diseñada por GreenSet, dirigida por el español Javier Sánchez Vicario]”.
Loss of initiative
The fact is that in the premiere, the Spaniard did not take the shots as usual. Quite the opposite of Zverev, who made the most of his projectiles and seconds: “The track is very fast, just like last year. Maybe the altitude [Turín está 240 metros sobre el nivel del mar] may also be a factor, but the conditions here are very fast, that’s clear.” I watched the match between the two Medvedev, who was not entirely surprised by the outcome. “If you asked me two or three months ago I would say yes, but tennis is like that, very complicated. For whatever reason, now we feel that Carlos plays a little slower and that he does not have the same confidence as the rest of the year. This can happen to everyone; It even happened to Novak [Djokovic] when I was younger. The question is, how quickly is she going to recover? Will it be her in this tournament or next year?”
The Russian, a good chess player and good strategist, was struck by a detail in the broadcast. “When Carlos lost the second set, they showed the speed of their groundstrokes and Sascha’s were about 10 kilometers per hour faster. “This is very surprising,” commented Medvedev, who is right. In recent times, the violence of Alcaraz’s blows has decreased and his game suffers, logically. If the Murcian is characterized and impressed by something, it is his permanent challenge to biomechanics, his ability to generate power from nothing, without the need to completely assemble his arm. Rublev’s phrase serves as an illustration: “Daniil kills you slowly, enjoying the moment and taking his time, while Alcaraz destroys you immediately, without you realizing it.” However, the number two string has lost steam on impact and today’s cannon shots do not overwhelm the rival in the same way.
Alcaraz serves during the match against Sinner.GUGLIELMO MANGIAPANE (REUTERS)
Without going any further, his fastest serve against Zverev reached 217 km/h, when he rarely drops below 220, but the average speed of the first and second serves against the Hamburger is even more revealing. The ATP record puts the first at 191 km/h (17 less than their opponent) and the second at 161 (7 below), when the usual average in good times is usually around 193/195 km/h. h and 165 km/h. Alcaraz’s lashes at the beginning and during the point do not punish in the same way and his drive has lost power, which reduces his initiative in duels and exposes him to a circumstance that bothers him, that of having to defend himself instead. to take the lead in the exchanges.
“It is his first time in this tournament and he is as old as he is, so Carlos is here to enjoy and to learn,” his team claims, certain that the player will greatly appreciate the rest that is coming and, also, that he will will empty to move forward the fight with Rublev. Every option involves surrendering to Moscow this Wednesday.
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2023-11-15 04:15:00
#Masters #Cup #fast #track #slowest #Alcaraz #Tennis #Sports
