Alcaraz, the recipe for precocity

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The Murcian is a child prodigy who, in a matter of months of promise, has become the best in the world

When tennis returned after the pandemic, Carlos Alcaraz, from the top 300 in the world and just 17 years old, embarked on a Challengers tour that saw him win in Trieste, Barcelona and Alicante and reach the final in Cordenons. And all that in just two months. In total, the Murcian, still unknown to the general public, played 29 games, with 24 wins and only five defeats. Surprised by the beginning talent, already formed by Juan Carlos Ferrero, his physical resistance. His ability to chain tournament after tournament and game after game without hurting his tennis in the least. It was still early days to catch a glimpse of a star like the one that shines in the tennis world today, but Alcaraz was already showing signs that his physique was a step (or several) ahead of what an athlete his age should be. to do. An example of his speed, of his speed to break through barriers with the best, and which he has pushed to the limit since early 2022.

Alcaraz’s physique was already privileged, but in this year’s preseason he gave it a different spin. He gave up the first tournaments of the year and concentrated on specific work to improve his figure. Together with his physical trainer, Alberto Lledó, Alcaraz added more than four kilos to his body, to put himself around 80, and he worked hard in the gym to build muscles and resistance that would allow him to fight for his big dream. : the greatest strikes. “I wanted to be comfortable in the long races,” said the man from Murcia in Australia.

To compete day after day in five sets, Alcaraz had to chisel a physique that genetically had everything to succeed and for whom pure and hard work brought out the best in themselves.

So his 2022 defines him. In Rio de Janeiro, he became the youngest tennis player to win an ATP 500 since Rafael Nadal won Acapulco in 2005. Alcaraz did it at 18 years and nine months, well ahead of Novak Djokovic, who only did it in 2007 at 20 years and 4 months, and Roger Federer, who did it until he was 21 years old.

In March, he made his Davis Cup debut, still aged 18, and was the youngest rookie in the history of the Spanish Davis team since Nadal played Jiri Novak in 2004. Also, unlike Nadal, who lost that match (his only singles loss in history), Alcaraz crushed Marius Copil to tip Romania in Marbella. This record would have beaten him much sooner had he not been unlucky enough to contract covid before the Madrid final in 2021.

To round off a magical start to the year, two historic months arrived. He won in Miami, was the youngest in history to achieve it and became the sixth first tennis player to win a Masters 1,000, surpassed only by figures such as Boris Becker, Bjorn Borg, Michael Chang, Mats Wilander and Nadal himself. In fact, when he became champion a few weeks later in Madrid, he became the second youngest in history to win two Masters 1,000 titles. Only Nadal surpasses him with his magnificent gravel tour in 2005 in precocity. Moreover, El Palmar’s did it by beating Nadal and Djokovic consecutively, in the quarters and semi-finals, something no one had achieved in a clay court tournament.

Alcaraz still hasn’t won Nadal’s rivalry (1-2 to the man from Manacor), and this was the big stumbling block to break even more records. In the rankings, Alcaraz is the youngest ‘top 20’ and ‘top 10’ since Nadal, and well ahead of Djokovic and Federer.

The Murcian’s successes are no accident, they are the result of extensive work that started when Juan Carlos Ferrero decided to sponsor him at the age of 15. A few months earlier, at the O2 in London, while the 2017 Masters Cup was being played, Alcaraz won the Lacoste U14 invitation, his first example of a great champion. He was still being trained by Kiko Navarro, who passed the baton to Ferrero to start the climb.

Five years after that win in London, much has changed for Alcaraz, but his spirit of dedication, sacrifice and victory continues to devour records. From that invitation to the Challengers, his first ATP win in 2020, the first title in Umga and the successes that continue to fall, Alcaraz has shown that speed is his gasoline and there is much more to come.

Source: La Verdad

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