Alcaraz, target Paris

With victories (28, more than anyone in the ATP) and titles (four, also top in the circuit), Carlos Alcaraz breaks schemes in tennis. At the gates of the Grand Slam on clay (from May 22), the French newspaper L’Équipe prepares the ground: “His amazing ascent makes him one of the great favorites for Roland Garros”. Delivered, after losing 6-3 and 6-1 in the final of the Mutua Madrid Open, Alexander Zverev defined him as “the best player in the world” and issued a warning: “He is going to win Grand Slams and be number one.”

The Murcian is already second in the Race, the race that gives access to the Masters at the end of the season, only 70 points behind Rafa Nadal, who won the first Grand Slam of the year in Melbourne. In it ranking ATPthe one that grants the status of king of tennis and in which Novak Djokovic commands, who yesterday premiered week 369 at the helm, Alcaraz is already sixth. In May 2021 he was the 120th. With his triumphs in Rio, Miami, Godó and Madrid, it has skyrocketed and thinking about assaulting the top in the medium term is not a utopiaalthough he is now 3,487 points behind the Serbian.

Why? The phenomenon of El Palmar he only defends 163 points until after Wimbledon. At Roland Garros, 115 because he fell in the third round coming from the previous one, and in the big one on grass, 45 from a second round. Titles in the Grand Slams award 2,000. Winning one would mean an exponential jump in the world ranking.

Djokovic, champion in Paris and London, has a mountain of 4,600 to keep. The injured Russian Daniil Medvedev, although he has room to add (see table) and could reappear in Geneva before Roland Garros, is banned from Wimbledon. Nadal defends 2,360.

“I am prepared to win a Grand Slam, it is a goal for me this year and I am going to work for it and see what happens at Roland Garros”warned Alcaraz after lifting the Mutua trophy.

“That they see me as a favorite at Roland Garros, I don’t take it as pressure, but as motivation. This title gives me a lot of confidence to go to Paris with energy,” reflected Alcaraz, who seems to enjoy both on the slopes of the Equelite Academy, where he trains in Villena (Alicante), than in a plant with 12,500 people.

JUAN CARLOS FERRERO

“Climb the stairs four at a time; every week it goes faster,” Juan Carlos Ferrero marvelshis coach and also champion at Roland Garros (2003) and former number one, who also seems to hallucinate with his pupil.

Rafa Nadal, with whom it is inevitable to compare the Murcian in terms of precocity, raised his first title in Paris at the age of 19 years and two days in 2005. With the Spaniard (13 titles at Roland Garros) and Djokovic (two) in the ointment and five sets, the Musketeers Cup are big words. But right now, nothing seems impossible for Charly.