MADRID, 30 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Former tennis player Álex Corretja assures that Spanish tennis is “in a great moment” that must be “enjoyed” before the start of a US Open in which Rafa Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz are in the first line of candidates to conquer it, although he sees “somewhat further in the starting line” to the Balearic and the Russian Daniil Medvedev, current champion.
“I think that we are experiencing a great moment and that we have to enjoy it. I think it is very positive, and also with two very different airs, with a consolidated Rafa and our flagship, and now the new fresh air of Alcaraz, which has dragged what adolescents are and that supposes a new illusion in Spanish tennis”, Corretja declared in an interview with Europa Press prior to the US Open, a competition that he will comment on for Eurosport.
The Catalan also wanted to remember “Paula Badosa, Garbiñe Muguruza or Pablo Carreño, who wins in Montreal and puts himself in the spotlight there”. “At the Spanish level it is quite surprising because I think we have never had the number two and number three seeds at the US Open, I don’t remember. In our time, Moyá and I were there and we were both quite high up, but we were probably the five or six,” he stressed.
However, Corretja sees Alexander Zverev’s withdrawal due to injury as “a shame”, due to his absence and that has caused Nadal and Alcaraz to play “in a hypothetical semifinal”. “Hopefully they will both arrive because it would be very good news since one of the two would sneak into the final,” she commented.
In any case, he believes that “there is no clear favourite” in this edition. “Djokovic is not going to compete and Rafa arrives ‘just’ from games, so I think that Medvedev is one of the players to take into account, with Rafa. Rafa, because of how he has played this year, and Medvedev, because he is the champion of the last year, I think they are the two who are a bit further forward in the starting line-up”, he explained.
“But then look at how Carreño, Coric, Tsitsipas have played, who is also very strong, or Alcaraz, who is coming from less to more and that is also positive. And then you never know why Kyrgios is suddenly going to be a danger because he is coming playing well, he played well at Wimbledon and then he has been good in the summer, and there are also several players who are difficult like Hurkacz or Fritz, all of these are very uncomfortable,” Corretja explained.
The former captain of the Spanish Davis Cup team focused on the Australian, “that you can find him the same in the third round or in the round of 16 and it’s a time bomb whoever gets it because in the end he can cut your physique so healthy”.
“IT HAS A LOT OF MERIT TO SEE THAT THERE ARE SEVERAL PLAYERS WITH OPTIONS”
Depending on what happens at the US Open, up to four tennis players (Medvedev, Nadal, Alcaraz and Tsitsipas) could finish the tournament as number one in the world, something that Corretja describes as “a bit atypical”. “Among other things because in the last 20 years they have dominated three and I didn’t leave them, they shared it out and there were hardly any chances because, among other things, they took a lot of points for the others,” she warned.
For Corretja, this equality “is going to turn” the US Open “into something very interesting.” “In the end we started the ‘Grand Slams’ of boys in recent years saying that it would be this player or that one and we were hardly wrong,” she said.
“It has much more merit now to see that there are several players with options, although of the 128 not all of them have them because the reality is that not everyone is qualified to win the tournament and it will be limited to five, six, seven players who are there,” he argued.
For this reason, he acknowledges that he “would be very surprised to see” that someone who is “out of the top 40 in the ATP ranking” wins, as could happen last year in the women’s draw with the victory of the British Emma Raducanu. “On the boys’ side today I don’t see it, although it is true that the level is becoming more balanced,” she said.
“WHAT I PERCEIVE MOST IS THE GIANT ILLUSION THAT THERE IS FOR THE US OPEN”
Álex Corretja sees this edition of the ‘great’ New Yorker as “exciting” due to the sensations that have arisen “in recent weeks regarding tennis” and “the illusion that there is to see the players”.
“I have been moving around a lot all summer and everyone who comes to me has told me that what is happening this year in tennis with the explosion of Alcaraz is exciting, with the confirmation once again that Rafa is an outstanding player. Let’s see what happens with the girls or now with Serena Williams, who is going to retire,” he stressed.
For Corretja, “more than something in particular”, the exciting thing about this US Open “is the atmosphere in general”. “People are thinking a bit about what is going to happen to Rafa, if he is recovered or not, if Alcaraz is going to be able to withstand the pressure and the emotions, and about Medvedev, who won last year. I think all of this generates very excited about the tournament,” he said.
The former tennis player affirms that “there is such a high expectation” that he really wants to put on “his helmets and comment on games” because “people are vibrating him a lot” and that increases his illusion. “From there it will depend what you like more, a style of play or another, a player or a player, but what I perceive most in the environment is the giant illusion that there is with the US Open”, he reiterated.
However, the Barcelonan does not finish daring to bet on a champion. “Everything changes so much, if it’s cold, hot, if it rains, if you play during the day, at night, making a forecast is absurd,” he admitted. “Everything that is not Nadal, Medvedev or the ones I have mentioned wins would attract my attention, I think it is what this tournament is for, that there are tennis players who can surprise you, yes, but I think that today are a little above them,” he concluded.