![]() ![]() They are all so blissfully ignorant of fates much worse. People outside, they walk, up and down the street, loath to come to a standstill. Roger and Rafa have their own obvious strengths and weaknesses.Why, o, why, do I try to control that which is not to be controlled? Why, o, why, must these painful fevers recur? Who ends up with the power? The jailer, who imprisons the offender at the end of the day, or the offender, who shall go wrong the next morning? Cats and mice play at games more altogether fruitful than these. I haven’t played a player like him ever, to be honest. I think that has been my personal strength for many years. He’s got this Spanish bull mentality of competitiveness and fighting spirit and incredible defence that we’ve seen with Rafa over the years – the two-handed backhands, defence, being able to adapt. He’s got this mental resilience and real maturity for someone who is 20 years old. I think he’s got basically the best of all three worlds. “I think people have been talking about his game consisting of certain elements from Roger, Rafa, and myself,” Djokovic told reporters after Sunday’s final. Realistically, I think he can win between ten and 15 titles.”Īll in all, they are pretty big ambitions for a young player who is breaking new ground with a minimum of fuss and has clearly been learning from the best on his way to the top. If he plays for another 15 years at the highest level and manages to steer clear of serious injury, Carlitos could quite easily pick up around 15 Grand Slam titles over the course of his career, a figure that Wilander, speaking about that very subject on Eurosport, believes is just about right: “If he stays fit and keeps playing tennis like this, he’s only going to improve. ![]() ![]() Couldn’t be better for our sport in general.” Time now to look forward to a potential next instalment in New York. Why not? I think it’s good for the sport: No.1 and 2 in the world facing each other in almost a five-hours, five-set thriller. “He’s going to be on the Tour for quite some time, but I don’t know how long I’ll be around I hope we get to play at the US Open. “I hope so for me and my health,” joked Djokovic in the post-match press conference. In total agreement with the Spanish tyro, the most successful men’s player in Grand Slam history hopes that this is indeed the start of a new rivalry. I won for my team and I, not to start a new era.” ![]() “We can have the debate in a few years’ time, when they retire and stop playing. “Both Rafa and Djokovic are still on the Tour and there won’t be a change of era,” he said, in an interview with Spanish sports daily Marca. Such is his respect for the mighty duo, however, and his modesty that he is reluctant to talk of a new era. Having got the better of both Rafa and Nole in Madrid last year, he pulled off one of the biggest wins the sport has seen in recent years in an epic battle that lasted 18 minutes short of five hours. Newly installed as the leader of the future golden generation, the kid from El Palmar also has the task of knocking the legends off their pedestal. But when I went and won the tournament in the way that I did, feeling very much at ease on the surface, I said to myself that I could win Wimbledon.” “I just couldn’t have imagined it before Queen’s,” he told French sports newspaper L’Equipe. Prior to this year’s Wimbledon, Alcaraz had only played 11 matches on grass. Only seven players before him had won Queen’s and Wimbledon in the same year: John McEnroe (1981, 1984), Jimmy Connors (1982), Boris Becker (1985, 1988), Pete Sampras (1995, 1999), Leyton Hewitt (2002), Rafa Nadal (2008) and Andy Murray (2013, 2016).Īlcaraz has now won nine of the ten five-setters he has played, proof of his seemingly unbreakable mental strength and peerless fitness levels. The man from Murcia is in very good company, with only Mats Wilander (four titles), Borg (three), Boris Becker and Nadal (two) enjoying such success at such an early age. In winning his second Grand Slam crown, Alcaraz is only the fifth player in the Open Era to have won more than one before turning 21. ![]()
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