From Alcaraz to Rune, tennis celebrates youth

The story is young.

And as such, Carlos Alcaraz is asked: What personal toll has it had to get to where he has come, which is no other place than the top of tennis and younger than anyone?

The Murcian, who defeated Grigor Dimitrov yesterday without disheveled (6-1 and 6-3, in 1h 11m) and in the Paris-Bercy quarterfinals will meet this Friday (around 3:30 p.m., Movistar) with another youngster, Holger Rune, also 19 years old, he replies: “I haven't been able to go out with my friends as much as I would have liked.

I couldn't do it until so late, I had to go home earlier because the next day I had to train really hard”.

Before, on the track, Alcaraz maintained the ritual of the celebration, drawing glasses with the index and middle fingers of both hands and flapping them with the remaining six.

“It's no secret.

I have a group of friends called

, and that's where it comes from”, explained through Twitter the number one, who has more and more possibilities of sealing the season at the top of the

, according to mathematics;

specifically, a victory in the French Masters 1000 would ensure him to defend the position, which would make him the youngest player in history to achieve it.

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Alcaraz enjoys the lifeless Dimitrov

"It's a great feeling to feel the best in the world," he admits.

“But for me it's just a number, a

.

Being there doesn't mean you're going to win every game or every tournament.

All rivals can beat you.

I feel like I can lose any game, and that's the most important thing.

You have to play your best tennis every day, or at least try to”, clarifies the prodigy from El Palmar, who against Dimitrov added his 57th victory of a “great year” in which, in addition to leading the world list, he has won five trophies: Rio de Janeiro, Miami, Barcelona, ​​Madrid and the US Open, to which are added the finals in Hamburg and Umag.

Alcaraz is the great sensation of the moment and his definitive explosion confirms the change of guard that was so much demanded.

In any case, he does not walk alone.

Beside him, two other tennis players are stepping strong and monopolizing more and more spotlights, especially in this final stretch of the year in which they are developing in an extraordinary way.

One is Felix-Augger Aliassime, the dizzying Canadian – advised by Toni Nadal since April 2021 – who has linked 15 wins and three titles (Florence, Antwerp and Basel) since mid-October, and another is the Viking Rune, who has two finals. (Sofia and Basel) and a prize (Stockholm) in just over a month.

The former defeated veteran Gilles Simon 6-1, 6-3 and will face Frances Tiafoe (23 years old) today, while the latter defeated Russian Andrei Rublev 6-4, 7-5.

Rewind to Miami 2007

Aliassime, 22, is already the virtual number six in the world and Rune – from 2003, a contemporary of Alcaraz – is already 18th, when just over a year ago he was not even among the top 300.

Although the name of the first one had already resonated for three years, both are making their way towards a natural space in the heights, in the same way that other great projects (and in some cases realities) are doing it, such as the Italians Yannik Sinner (21 years old, 14th) or Lorenzo Musetti (20th and 23rd), who dropped another emerging and thriving talent, the Norwegian Casper Ruud (23rd and 4th).

Musetti returns the ball during the match against Ruud. CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT (AFP)

Tennis celebrates youth and the Bercy public rubs their hands at what is to come.

Since 2007, when Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray collided, both 19 years old and semi-finalists in Miami, such an early duel had not been seen in the final stages of a Masters 1000. Roger Federer left, before Serena Williams and the new winds they gain strength.

Alcaraz and Ruud already issued signs as juniors and now they reaffirm their professionalism;

yes, with the Spanish as a mirror, or so the coach Patrick Mouratoglou contemplates it, who has allied himself with the Danish for the final stretch of 2022.

"I see it as a challenge for Holger, it will serve as a great motivation," the coach recently said in an interview with

.

Rune is going through a sweet moment and previously showed his growth at Roland Garros, where he reached the quarterfinals.

Now, there he had an alleged disagreement with Ruud in the locker room (denied by the latter), although the sparks flew in the subsequent dialectical exchange.

This week, the one who gave him a slap on the wrist was the Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka, who in the final greeting left him a message in the form of a recommendation, after several exchanges of risque looks: “Stop behaving like a baby on the track ”.

Nole: "I'll kick their ass as much as I can"

The youngsters push and the seniors try to keep up.

The seasoned Djokovic, 35, intends to revalidate the title obtained last year;

in the round of 16 he beat Karen Khachanov 6-4, 6-1 and warns: “I think it's good that there are new faces, but I won't give up.

I'll try to kick their asses for as long as I can."

The Serbian, who has won everything he has played since he paraded through Wimbledon –19 wins and a single loss, against Aliassime in the Laver Cup–, already blessed Alcaraz a long time ago, but influenced the praise in a statement made to the channel Eurosport.

“It's very good for our sport that we have young guys like him, Rune or Sinner.

He [Alcaraz] intends to dominate the game for the last couple of years.

I have a very good relationship with all of them.

It takes a lot of respect, dedication and hard work, so I respect them.

It was inevitable that [the relay] would happen after 15 years with Nadal, Federer, Murray, Wawrinka, Del Potro or myself”, says Nole;

“A lot of people are worried about whether tennis is in good hands and what level there will be after the

, but before that there was also another one with Borg, McEnroe, Sampras, Agassi or Becker, and still new players emerged.

Incredible as it may seem, I think it is possible to beat all the records we have achieved.”

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