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Nadal instructs Alcaraz

2021-05-06T14:24:28.975Z


The Mallorcan overflows the young Murcian, who turned 18, in the first match between the two: 6-1 and 6-2, in 1h 17m. This Thursday he will face Popyrin (7-6 and 6-2 to Sinner) for the quarters


No. Carlos Alcaraz is not Rafael Nadal.

Neither the Murcian is nor does he intend it, a boy who aims high and who plays tennis like angels, but who wants to write his own route despite the fact that from one corner and another they insist on the dangerous comparison that helps so little.

Alcaraz is good, very good.

He shows it in the first exchanges of a duel that split in two after 14 minutes.

First, the illusion;

later, the fright and the reality bath.

For those in the comparison, not for him, because he knows perfectly where he is and where he is going.

6-1 and 6-2, in 1h 17m.

The Mallorcan belongs to another dimension.

Nadal is Nadal, and he is him.

A beautiful race ahead.

Two completely different worlds.

More information

  • Alcaraz, before the day he always dreamed of

  • Badosa breaks the roof of Madrid

The boy, who this Wednesday celebrates 18 years and has the gift of measuring himself for the first time with the Balearic Islands, appreciates the happy birthday that the stands sing when he enters the track and prepares to warm up. The Magic Box wants to see him, and he wants to reciprocate. Ball without complexes, as always; He opens with the right and presses with the backhand, with that lively and ambitious game, more typical of speed than of land; tries to bite a Nadal who for a few minutes temporizes and analyzes, until the turning point arrives. In a happy exchange, from you to you, the Murcian stretches to try to return a high backhand volley, and the muscles of his chest contract. There is a puncture, too much tension. They are 18 years old. The afternoon breaks.

From there, the Balearic (34 years old) orders and disposes. Nadal steps on the accelerator without remission, drawing an insurmountable frontier. He links 10 consecutive points and Alcaraz, who had had a

break

option

in the first game, gasps for air and follows the rhythm set by the champion of 20 grand. This warms up, appreciates the sun that warms the central Madrid and begins to release the arm to go into combustion. His

drive

sparkles, the backhand carburetes and the serve, grayish in the two previous stops of the tour on clay, Monte Carlo and Barcelona, ​​works as it had not worked until now. Consequently, an abyss. 5-0 and the talk in the stands, because perhaps it would be ugly if the pretty boy of Spanish tennis received a donut one day like this.

Awesome debut!

🔝



🇪🇸 @RafaelNadal beats 🇪🇸 Carlos Alcaraz 6-1, 6-2 in his #MMOPEN premiere.

pic.twitter.com/9jrWd6YTiU

- #MMOPEN (@MutuaMadridOpen) May 5, 2021

In the end, scratch that game, there is no blur. Has Nadal loosened up? Who knows. Only he knows. Be that as it may, there is no condescension whatsoever in the continuation, resolved at the same military pace as the first round. "Come on, Carlitooos!" Is heard from one of the stands, where about 2,000 people attend who, instinctively, because that is always the case, try to tuck the boy in and clap when he achieves a

break

(for 3-1 ) that vanishes in a jiffy, with a blank return. Nadal, true to himself, does not give an iota and continues to his own, from acceleration to acceleration until he signs victory and seals an afternoon that speaks clearly: one is under construction, the other is an empire. There is relief, natural replacement, not replacement.

”You could have done something better, but in the end it's Rafa.

Playing against him is never easy, not the first time or when you have been 100 times.

Being able to learn from him on the court… I think next time it will be totally different, I'll know how to play, how to go out on the court.

The desire to finish the points too quickly has been a bit of a thing for me.

There has been a time when I didn't know I had Rafa in front of me, and he gave me back a ball, and another, and another ... I had to go to tow all the time, "he explains after receiving the entertainment of the organization, a tower of chocolate.

Nadal applauds Alcaraz, this Wednesday in Madrid.

/ MMO

"I don't have to teach anyone anything," Nadal responds to journalists. “When someone does what he does, it means that he is special. All you have to do is keep going. He has not complained once in the whole game, he has the right attitude, in Australia he was confined for 15 days and he did not protest either ... I have no need to praise anyone because he is young. We need someone to come out, but we must not overload them with responsibility. Hopefully all tennis fans can enjoy it and make it the path we think it can do ”, he values.

“It was a beautiful day, Carlos is the present and the future.

It was an interesting game, good for our sport ”, the winner resolves, with only 8 errors in the service sheet, quoted this Thursday (15.00, #Vamos and Teledeporte) with Alexei Popyrin (7-6 and 6-2 to Sinner ) for a square in the rooms.

Meanwhile, Alcaraz, with a great future ahead of him, takes a master lesson, an invaluable experience to keep: this is how the strongest ride.

Thus exercises a legend.

Check all the 

Results of the day 

/

Order of play

 on Thursday.

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Source: elparis

All sports articles on 2021-05-06

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