Carlos Alcaraz It evolves and marvels season after season. At 22 years old, the Spanish tennis player (born in El Palmar, Murcia) finished the season at the top of the ranking, having won eight titles (including Roland Garros and the US Open). It is, due to creativity, speed and skill, the player who provides the greatest spectacle on a court.
After his last official match (in the middle of last month, in the fall against the Italian and number 2, Jannik Sinner, in the final of the ATP Finals, in Turin), he traveled to Miami on vacation. And before starting the preseason with a view to 2026 entertained everyone at an exhibition.
The show was in New Jerseywhere he lost to the American Frances Tiafoe (30th in the world) by 6-3, 3-6 and 10-7. It is known that, in exhibitions, the result is the least important. The greatest value belongs to the points that manage to make viewers smile. Well, of that style… there were several. Alcaraz, the tennis player trained by Juan Carlos “Mosquito” Ferrero, made the 16,755 spectators who filled the Prudential Center stadium in Newark vibrate, giving away countless points full of fantasy, one of them with a Great Willy lob included and a subsequent backhand blow, which ended with an error by Tiafoe.
Alcaraz also won another point, with a smile, hitting between the legs but this time in front of Tiafoe, a blow that Gastón Gaudio and the Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas did several times, although in official competition.
There was also time during the exhibition for a mixed doubles super tie break (ten points) with locals Amanda Anisimova and Jessica Pegula. Pegula, number 6 on the WTA Tour, who was paired with the Murcian, replaced the injured British Emma Raducanu. The new duo defeated Tiafoe and Anisimova (number 4, finalist at Wimbledon and the US Open during the last year) 10-8.
Alcaraz will play an exhibition again this Monday, but in Miami, against the Brazilian Joao Fonseca, 19 years old, one of the great appearances on the tour this season, champion of the ATP in Buenos Aires and Basel. Surely the colorful spots that will entertain the public will be repeated in a particular setting for a tennis match: it will be played at LoanDepot Park, the baseball stadium of the Miami Marlins.
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