He leaves dejected and frustrated Carlos Alcaraz of the Masters Cup. It’s a step back from last year, when he reached the semifinals, but perhaps a step forward in terms of building a better player. He has faced Casper Ruud (wide defeat), Andrey Rublev (solvent triumph) and Alexander Zverev (close defeat), and also a malaise from which he emerges victorious, not because he has appeased the symptoms, but because he has shown that he can win, and at least fight at the highest level, even when everything is not to your liking.
On the threshold of pain, there is something for everyone. Without reaching the extremes of Rafael Nadal, for example, all tennis players play with more or less discomfort, and not all of them deal with it the same way. Juan Carlos Ferrero He was capable of setting foot on the court when he was badly injured. Alcaraz, 21 years old, is a player who must have everything very close to perfection for a smile to emerge, a source close to the team points out. Everything has gone well for him so far, four Grand Slams, an Olympic silver and the youngest number 1 in history, and in moments of imbalance, it shows more than others. The gestures give him away, still so transparent in that sense, that he does not mind exposing these types of weaknesses, if they are.
Alcaraz has needed his physique to be perfect, for the right in training to end up where he wants, for there to be no extra-sports imbalances that could annoy him. The team knows it. Making sure that you are always as safe as possible within the insecurities of this demanding sport.
This past dirt season it was the forearm that led to the abuse. He was absent from Monte Carlo and Barcelona, in tears because he wanted to play, and Rome, and he did not seem comfortable in Madrid. Beyond the discomfort and the relapse he had, Alcaraz admitted that the ghosts were also present. “Even if I don’t want to, it’s on my mind if I’m going to notice it in every forehand or when I’m forced.” For several weeks he wore a protective mesh that monitored his physical area and offered him mental support. “My physio tells me to put it on and I put it on, he hasn’t explained to me how it helps, I trust him and I obey.”
Admittedly, this circumstance, the result of still little experience in adverse situations, the Murcian faced another eventuality in this Masters Cup: getting cold a few days before landing in Turin. He couldn’t handle the snot, the cough and Ruud at the premiere. Disoriented, dull and without spark, he let himself be carried away by apathy. It wasn’t him. Or yes. But he was an Alcaraz aware of menthol, the handkerchief and less of tennis and his superiority even at a lower level.
It took him a couple of days to understand it. Work on convincing, disconnecting, resting, not rushing those lungs at half throttle. That what had to be trained was spirit and not tennis. This is how he stood before Rublev, more firm and convinced. «You have to play well even when you are sick. “It’s what the best do.” I repeated yesterday.
«I just want to put it in and I miss it»
And yet he went out on the track yesterday. Cooling down forgotten, confidence instilled, performance improved, leaning on the band-aid on your nose, just in case. But it was not enough against this Zverev elevated to excellence in the serve, at an average of 220 kilometers per hour, which also subtracted everything, impregnable in the background, which pushed him back and surpassed him with passes to the lines. Perhaps because he arrived so convinced, not winning the semi-final prize revealed the Murcian’s frustration.
«If I just want to put it in and I miss it. I wanted to put it eight meters into the field and I threw it out,” he vented to his coach, who tried to reassure him: “But you’re close, you’re close.” There was no way.
He wasn’t as vehement as in Cincinnati, with that racquet broken with three hits so unusual in his behavior, but there were the small acts of rage: hands on hips, loud voices at his box, a frown and a racquet thrown towards his bag when lost the first set. «In the tie break there were points where I could have done better. At 6-5 I don’t know what happened to me to volley that ball. You decide in less than a second and sometimes it is the correct option and other times something that is not appropriate. Losing the set like that hurts. Then I had a 40-0 that I lost with stupid shots and it was complicated for me. Some 30-30 that I have played badly. “Things I have to learn,” he explained later. Goodbye to the Masters Cup between tissues, menthol, anger and lessons.
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