A Meeting of Tennis Generations: Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz Face Off in Las Vegas

—How old are you?

— 20.

— Phew! At that age I didn’t even know what he was saying…

During the 21 minutes that the exhibition lasts for a selection of Spanish media invited to Las Vegas by Netflix, Rafael Nadal, dressed in dark from top to bottom, conducts the intervention with a paternalistic air, as if the 17-year gap that distances him from Carlos Alcaraz, 37 and 20 respectively, were even higher. “Has…

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—How old are you?

— 20.

— Phew! At that age I didn’t even know what he was saying…

During the 21 minutes that the exhibition lasts for a selection of Spanish media invited to Las Vegas by Netflix, Rafael Nadal, dressed in dark from top to bottom, conducts the intervention with a paternalistic air, as if the 17-year gap that distances him from Carlos Alcaraz, 37 and 20 respectively, were even higher. “He has youth, energy, passion and self-confidence, which helps him face things with little fear. When you start, everything is new and you have experienced few bad things, but as the years go by, you continue to experience them. Even if you try to forget them, you always have them in a corner,” says the 22-grand champion, who despite the slow inactivity maintains his tic and tries to relax his neck muscles with sudden spasmodic movements, from left to right, as if he had just finished. play a game He speaks Mallorcan from the vantage point of his legend and his successor, in charcoal gray, does not lose detail in each word. “Rafa always imposes, I’m not going to deceive you!”, the Murcian answers with a laugh, adding: “I’ve seen Rafa a lot on TV, I’ve grown up watching him play. Although it was little, my experience with him has been incredible. I would have loved to share more time, but I try to enjoy every time I meet him.”

This Sunday, the exhibition designed by the platform (9:30 p.m., streaming) will bring them together for the fourth time and there will be many who think that perhaps it could be the last. The clock ticks inexorably and exhausts Nadal’s sporting life, who expresses himself seriously, with a thin face, strong hands, the occasional wrinkle on his face and a tone that gives off the aroma of suffering, even though it will reappear after another two months in the dry dock and, if plans don’t go awry again, he will compete next week in Indian Wells, one of the venues he wants to say goodbye to in an intimate way.

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“Well, I don’t know how I am,” he answers the journalist who worries about his physical condition. “To be totally honest, because at this point I have no choice but to be honest and I can’t hide anything, I’ve been here since Brisbane [donde se lesionó, el 5 de enero frente a Jordan Thompson] without playing a set. I have had better and worse moments. But for me the most important thing is not how I am, but where I am, and I am here. That’s already good news. Two weeks ago my goal was to play the Las Vegas match and play Indian Wells, and I am closer to achieving it. I have followed the appropriate paths to try to play the tournament [en el que debuta el jueves]. At what level? It’s the least important thing,” he continues; “The important thing is to be able to spend a few days there with professionals and to be able to play the game with Carlos beforehand, which makes me excited. I will try to do my best, knowing that the preparation has been bad. For me the priority is to play Indian Wells and try to get out of there unscathed; From there, whatever has to be left, leave everything on the dirt tour. It may or may not be the last, I don’t know; I don’t have it one hundred percent decided, but at the moment things are going that way.”

Nadal continues to ponder and, above all, accept, because destiny shows him a door that is difficult for a champion of his magnitude to cross. He has never given up and, for the moment, he does not do so in this goodbye that is getting closer and closer and that continues to guide him through dark spaces, every time he wants to return and have a minimum of continuity, impossible until now. With only three games in his pocket, the chassis slowed him down before the Australian Open and every pause it imposes on him means an acceleration towards the final point, even if he does not give up. Nadal wants, aware like no one else of his situation and the harshness that he has encountered in this final flight forward. Rebellion in the speech, at the same time good sense.

Veterans and charges

“I’m not saying goodbye, first of all, because if I did I would say that I’m not playing anymore. I don’t want to say it yet because I’m not one hundred percent clear, but it’s true that reality is what it is, and it says that in the last two years I’ve been able to play very little. Life is showing you the path. I didn’t imagine my farewell [estando de baja] because when you start imagining something, the closer you are to it. Everyone would like to say goodbye well, playing, being competitive and enjoying themselves on the court. Whether it can be or not? Time will tell. The months and weeks show me a path that is being complicated. It is an acceptance process that is not easy to handle, and I try to accept it. I couldn’t go to Doha [donde había planificado en la recta final de febrero]but here we are now.”

The Spaniard emphasizes that today he is not thinking about Roland Garros or gravel tours, although he would also like to be able to say goodbye to Monte Carlo at the beginning of April. In any case, he still perceives the Principality as a distant goal, since he has lost the rhythm acquired in the preseason and that each appearance on the court will be accompanied by questions and an uncomfortable uncertainty that he cannot clear up. “It was hard not to play the Australian Open, but internally I knew that thinking about something important there was null; not because of tennis, but because of his physical level, because he had not competed for a year. It was a step back for having to stop again. I was playing tennis well and when you are old, breaks make your body stop being prepared. When you play regularly you get used to the rhythm and the loads. I can’t play week after week, but if I do it every two or three weeks, it tolerates those loads when you stop. Now there are more risks of injury because the body is not making the proper adaptation, and that is the most screwed up thing about Brisbane, speaking in plain words, because the feeling was good.”

Own story

In the opposite direction, Alcaraz foresees a prosperous professional future ahead. The boy assures that the recovery of the ankle that he injured in Rio de Janeiro on February 20 is on the right track, and that the drought does not worry him too much because if he maintains the line, he trusts, the successes will return. He hasn’t lifted a trophy since Wimbledon in July, but he sticks to the process. “People, if you don’t win titles, think it’s bad, and it’s not like that. It may be that we have to improve after the US Open, not lower our level and concentration from there, but we have already talked about it internally. And this beginning of the year I started with good feelings, in Australia I played good tennis and in Buenos Aires it wasn’t the best feeling, but I think it was also good; Then, in Rio, something unexpected happened. I don’t think it’s about failure or frustration in what I’ve done, I simply have to learn,” says Alcaraz, whose answers logically lack the insight offered by Nadal during the conversation.

It is the first time that they pose together in a room and there is a good vibe, but also mutual ignorance. They have barely shared time or space, although the one from El Palmar has already earned the blessing. “Unfortunately I have been on the circuit very little since he arrived. I have been able to live little of it on a day-to-day basis and vice versa, too. Carlos is fresh air for tennis, a special player, for his age one of the complete ones I have seen and with a marvelous physique. He is where he deserves and, apart from that, he works hard,” the tennis player from Manacor, who today lost in qualifying in the catacombs, dedicates to him, 654th in the ranking. The Murcian occupies the second step and is progressively distancing himself from the comparison, and trying to write his own story.

“With what I have been doing and with the tournaments I have won, I feel like I am building my own path. “I try not to pay attention to the comparisons with Rafa because he is a unique player, and you cannot be compared to one of the greatest in the history of our sport,” he resolves before referring to the giant as “a teammate, probably a rival,” in which that Nadal reacts with melancholy and the wounded pride of the warrior who hastens the last steps: “I would like to be a rival… There is still a season ahead, and I hope I can be not only a partner…”. In Las Vegas, a historic intersection.

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2024-03-03 06:47:35
#Netflix #Slam #Nadal #hard #process #acceptance #forget #bad #corner #Tennis #Sports