Federer’s farewell and Alcaraz’s upset, protagonists of a 2022 to remember

It could be from the family residence in Wollerau, a three-story glass house with large windows overlooking Lake Zurich, next to his wife Mirka Vavrinec and with their children Myla, Leo, and Lennart, where occasionally the images of those days at the O2 in London still run through Roger Federer’s head, emotional, endless and suffering, where the farewell to his career is real and official.

Trace of the end-of-year party planned at the Laver Cup, twenty-four years after its professional premiere and after a great journey, full of victories described in an amazing way and in a wonderful way to develop the game. One hour.

Roger Federer understood that the body is not enough. That there is no further journey on his journey to extend the bid for victory and extend the one-on-one with Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic; statistical, popular and personal challenges for consideration of the best in history.

The Swiss, who is 41, has been on the edge of glorious moments of great tournaments for a long time.. Four have passed since he won his last Grand Slam, in Australia. The twentieth of his career.

Between nostalgia and calm, Federer recalls that afternoon discovering the emotional vulnerability that besets any human being.. That which he knew to hide many times in the field once he lived at the top and after surviving the youth rebellion. It was a special farewell because fate ensured that the environment matched the character.

This is what happened. Active, in the middle of the track of the London venue, next to his rival, friend and teammate Rafa Nadal, with whom he shared so many epic episodes. Roger and Rafa lost to Americans Jack Sock and Frances Tiafoe and marked the end of an era in tennis.

This was not an impromptu goodbye. Federer headed to the middle of the track. The public delivered, Nadal was excited. A video on the scoreboard summed up a timeless career, with 103 individual titles, with twenty Grand Slams.

Injuries, the operating room, an endless recovery, a tunnel with no exit and the passage of years end up convincing Roger of the need to step aside as a new generation begins to engulf the circuit, to attack the tour where Rafael Nadal is still strong and Novak Djokovic is also fighting, survivors of the natural push, challenging the cycles of life.

Time stood still in 2022 for Federer as it stood for Argentine Juan Martín del Potro, German Philipp Kohlschreiber, the American Sam Querrey, the Italian Andreas Seppi, the French Gilles Simon and Jo Wilfried Tsonga, the South African Kevin Anderson or the Spanish Tommy Robredo and Marc López who also led the sports march to give heralded the end of a promotion unparalleled in tennis history.

They hastily say goodbye and extend their history Djokovic and Nadal, with a dominant character, patient in the face of the chaos of the modern era played by men like the Russian Daniil Medvedev, the Norwegian Caper Ruud, the German Alexander Zverev, the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, the Canadian Felix Auger Aliassime, the Italian Jannik Sinner or the Danish Holger Rune. But especially, Carlos Alcaraz, who was installed at the end of the year at the top of the circuit where he contemplates a good future.

He would never measure his Alcaraz tennis against Federer. This is one of the grievances of the Murcian, a recognized fan of the Swiss icon, who will never give up on the experiences experienced throughout the year that has just ended.

The Spaniard who was established as the youngest number 1 in the history of tennis took little time to reach the summit. The 19-year-old is already part of the greats of the sport and has broken records constantly being established at every step.

Alcaraz closed 2019 at number 492 in the ranking and a year later reached December at number 141. He broke into the world top 100 in May 2021, turning 18 and finished that season ranked 32nd. Twelve months later, he crowned the world rankings. Most of all. Of the classics, of the legendary, of the compiled and of the beginners.

Alcaraz achieved in record time the desire that is still pending for men like Zverev, Tsitsipas, Andrey Rublev or Matteo Berrettinistandard-bearers of the intermediate generation destined to inherit the harvest of the ‘Big Three’ and yet to attack the summit.

But a few months are enough to burn through the stages and cross the hurdles at full speed. From the promise to the rival to beat, the Spaniard who enhanced El Palmar in his conquests on September 11 in New York when he definitively combined his marks in tennis by winning his first Grand Slam, the United States Openthe Norwegian Casper Ruud and attack, at the same time, the top of the circuit.

Nothing beats the smile of this natural-faced young man, still a victim of the spontaneity of his limited experience, who imposes his tennis on the circuit. Unforgettable victories like the ones achieved against Nadal and Djokovic in Madrid, epic victories like the one achieved against Sinner in New York These are some of the happy moments of the Murcian bursting with confidence in 2022 and gobbling up trophy after trophy.

Remember Alcaraz that he took his first steps on the course that now ends with the 2021 Umag trophy as the only merit. And suddenly, like who does not like the thing, Rio de Janeiro and, above all, the Masters 1000 in Miami. The matter is serious. Then came the victory in Barcelona and, especially, the Masters 1000 in Madrid. There is no end that can fight the one from El Palmar, who closed the circle in the United States, his first major. In Umag and Hamburg, he stayed at the door.

Fifty-seven wins and just fifteen losses and five titles sum up Alcaraz’s transit through his glory years.

The Spaniard opened his first Christmas as a father in his native Manacor, one step away from starting his twenty-second year as a professional. Almost four months of adapting to his new situation, in an unknown situation. For travel and distance. For your routine. An unexplored personal future and an uncertain event on the track.

2022 has been a strange course for Nadal who started with a bang, stagnated at his halfway point and declined at his end., not ready for flight. The Spaniards shone from the start, hugely so. Undefeated in his first tournaments he conquered. Melbourne, Australian Open and Acapulco. Twenty one win streak. A streak that was only stopped in March, in the finals of Indian Wells, due to a crack in his ribs.

Two months passed before he returned to the slopes. It is in Madrid. In Masters 1000. The body gave him up in the quarterfinals. He continued to Rome. It did not pass the eighth. But Roland Garros came and did not forgive. He regained his rank and returned to reign in Paris for the fourteenth time. That was his twenty-second Grand Slam, more than anyone else. Two above Federer and, at the same time, Novak Djokovic, whom he again won in the quarterfinals of the competition.

But the physical warnings do not stop the Spaniard who maintains a permanent and specific battle with injuries and the pitch., who divides his effort and resilience between physical conditions and games. It strengthens his strength with the needs of recovery from every contraction of his body and tuning up before the net.

The Balearic doesn’t return until August. He tried out in Cincinnati and lost in his debut. And in New York, on a great occasion to increase his main account, without Djokovic or Daniil Medvedev, he could not get past the round of 16.

He passed the rest of the course with great difficulty. Eliminated in the first round at Paris Bercy and has one win at the Turin Masters tournament. But the important thing was done.

Nadal closed the year flawlessly, waiting for his body to dictate what was to come. The track will mark the future, even with incentives, cling to the health and driving of novices. And about Djokovic, eternal, who reacted to the bad weather and the veto due to the consequences of the pandemic in the first section of the course but who warned of the pattern to be followed in the victory at Wimbledon, twenty one Grand Slam and a season finale.exploding.