Carlos Alcaraz lifted the US Open trophy in December after two weeks of grueling tennis—three consecutive marathon five-set matches in the rounds leading into the final. The 19-year-old Spaniard is the youngest player to win a grand slam since Rafael Nadal won his first French Open title in 2005. Both hailing from Spain, comparisons between Alcaraz and Nadal were inevitable. The younger player, however, has always batted away “the next Nadal” or “mini Nadal” monikers, instead insisting he wants to carve out his own legacy.
“I worked extremely hard the most recent few years, I endured a ton too on this way to arrive at this prize,” Alcaraz told CNN Sport’s Carolyn Manno after his four-set prevail upon Casper Ruud. “Obviously, now is the ideal time to in any case continue to work, to remain at the top for a long time or attempt to get more huge homeruns.
“It’s generally unsettled on the way, you need to endure a ton, a ton of extreme minutes in your day to day existence, so you need to defeat that. I worked, super hard for this.
“I have the first at 19 years of age, I desire to get another one year from now, however I endured a ton these fourteen days, so I know it’s super difficult to get a huge homerun, yet I will work for another. I will battle to get another thus this is an objective for me one year from now.”
Record breaker
With his triumph, Alcaraz additionally asserts the No. 1 world positioning interestingly, turning into the most youthful player in ATP history to do as such. It’s a fitting method for covering what has been a shocking breakout year for the young fellow from El Palmar in the locale of Murcia.
Subsequent to coming out on top for his lady ATP championship in 2021, Alcaraz has thrived further in 2022, bringing home four championships – including two Masters 1000 competitions – to ascend the rankings from No. 32 toward the beginning of the year.
Sunday’s fight against Ruud is a coordinate tennis fans are probably going to see significantly more of later on, with the Norwegian tipped by a lot of people to be a future huge homerun champion.
Subsequent to securing match point, a noticeably close to home Alcaraz tumbled to floor, however that probably might have been as much down to fatigue as it was feeling. He some way or another figured out how to track down the solidarity to move through the stands to arrive at his ally’s crate, offering embraces to companions, family and his mentor, previous world No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero.
“This second is a big deal to me, it’s something I was searching for since I began playing tennis,” Alcaraz said after his triumph. “I worked super difficult to have the option to lift this prize today, to turn into the best player on the planet. For my purposes, this feeling is unbelievable, so this prize makes a big difference to me.
“I contemplated when I began playing tennis and, obviously, the entirety of my family, each of my mentors during my life, everything from what I was a youngster. At the point when you are a youngster, you generally dream about a ton of things and to be No. 1 on the planet and to be a boss of a huge homerun were dreams for me.
“So at the present time lifting this prize is a little glimpse of heaven for me, so I’m so cheerful.”
Nadal was among the main individuals to offer approvals for Alcaraz’s accomplishment, with some survey his triumph in New York as the authority passing of the light for Spanish tennis.
“Congrats @carlosalcaraz for your most memorable Grand Slam and for the number 1 positioning, which is the perfection of your most memorable extraordinary season and of which I am certain there will be some more!” the 22-time huge homerun champion composed on Twitter.
With the expertise, will and assurance that were in plain view in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Sunday, maybe Spain will keep on having tennis magnificence to celebrate long into the future.
