After a few weeks with physical problems from the Balearics and a slump in the game from Murcia, the challenge for the Spaniards at the US Open is to continue until they reach the gates of the final major of the season.
The Arthur Ashe Court in New York could be the scene of the third showdown of the season between Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz. The table has determined that if everyone wins their first five matches, the top Spaniards in the ranking will face each other in the semi-finals. A road that is still long and with many stones on the way, especially for the Murcian, but which makes us dream of a train wreck in the last Grand Slam of the season.
For Nadal, this is the chance to add another title to his big account and increase it to 23. This season has been great in these types of tournaments and, after conquering Australia and Roland Garros, he is in New York with 17- 0 in your locker. At Wimbledon, he reached the semi-finals, but that does not count as a loss as he withdrew before the match against Nick Kyrgios.
Never in his career had he hit such a record up to this point in the year, although his best season in the Grand Slams was in 2010, when he won Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open after making quarters in Australia. His team raises expectations in its most productive Grand Slam after Roland Garros. Here he won in 2010, 2013, 2017 and 2019, missing the last two editions, one because of the situation with the pandemic and the other because of the foot injury that kept him off the slopes for five months. Making his debut on Wednesday against a guest, Rinky Hijikata, and until the semi-finals the most dangerous he has is Diego Schwartzman in the round of 16, and Cameron Norrie, Andrey Rublev or Denis Shapovalov in the quarter-finals. The draw was sweet.
But the preparation has not been satisfactory. Nadal, who suffered a stomach injury at Wimbledon, has been unemployed for a month and a half. He started training at his academy and had to drop out of the Canadian Masters 1,000 because he was not prepared for the competition. His return to the courts was delayed until Cincinnati, where he could barely play a game. He fell for eventual champion Borna Coric, although he was the only tennis player to win a set against the Croat all week.
His first games in New York, where he builds up a week of training, will be crucial to discovering the true state of the Balearic Islands, weighed down by his physique in recent years.
Alcaraz is much more grounded after a season that has been exhausting and where this is his last chance to win that Grand Slam he said he was ready to conquer. After a brutal six months, with titles in Miami, Rio de Janeiro, Madrid and Barcelona, Alcaraz ran empty after Roland Garros, where Alexander Zverev gave him a reality check, and since then he has only made finals in Hamburg and Umag. The US tour was also nothing to write home about and they lost in the first round in Canada and in the quarterfinals in Cincinnati.
Still, the Murcian has an idyll with Flushing Meadows. Here he made himself known with his first Grand Slam quarterfinal last year and forged a connection with the public that has spread through all the tournaments he has played since. He becomes one of the crowd favorites and that, in the noisiest tennis tournament in the world, is a big point in his favor. His main obstacle on the way to those semifinals is Borna Coric, in the third round, and Jannik Sinner, his executioner at Wimbledon and Umag, in the quarterfinals.
In addition, both Nadal and Alcaraz are on their own to end the tournament as number one in the world. If either of the two win the US Open, he will fire Daniil Medvedev as the current best racket on tour. The Russian, who is defending the title, is one of the favorites in New York in the major absence of three-time champion Novak Djokovic, who did not play the last Grand Slam of the year due to his refusal to be vaccinated. His absence costs him 1,200 points in the standings and for the first time since July 2018 the Serb falls out of the top 10.
Source: La Verdad
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