Alcaraz already knows the date of his US Open debut

The time has come. Next Monday, August 28, the US Open 2023 beginsa tournament that this year has two great favorites: Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic.

This Thursday the draw took place, which provided a more complicated path for the Spaniardscurrent champion, than the Serbian, who returned to New York after two years of not playing because of his refusal to get vaccinated against covid.

Nole was definitely one of those in charge of giving the starting signal of the tournament after it was confirmed at the last minute that bottom-of-the-table games would be played on Monday.

gg.didomi.doWhenConsent(!window.didomiBypass, ‘c:twitterwi-wUmBnnKy’, function () {
var x = document.createElement(‘script’);
x.setAttribute(“type”,”text/javascript”);
x.setAttribute(“src”, “//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js”);
x.setAttribute(“charset”, “utf-8”);
$(“.twitter-tweet”).closest( “span” ).append(x);
});

In this way, the debut of Carlos Alcarazlike other tennis players from above, will take place on Tuesday.

gg.didomi.doWhenConsent(!window.didomiBypass, ‘c:twitterwi-wUmBnnKy’, function () {
var x = document.createElement(‘script’);
x.setAttribute(“type”,”text/javascript”);
x.setAttribute(“src”, “//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js”);
x.setAttribute(“charset”, “utf-8”);
$(“.twitter-tweet”).closest( “span” ).append(x);
});

In the women’s box the order will be reversed. On Monday the upper part of the draw will be played, with Iga Swiatek at the helmand the lower part on Tuesday, with Aryna Sabalenka or Paula Badosa among others.

We remember that Alcaraz’s first rival, on Tuesday, is the German Dominik Koepfer, that he has never faced, and that, after a difficult start to the season in which he only played Challengers, chained two great results this summer, quarterfinals in Atlanta and semifinals in Los Cabos.

Should his debut be successful, the Murcian will face, on Thursday, the winner of the fight between South African Lloyd Harris.a great server who this year only stood in the semifinals in Mallorca, and Guido Pella, a clay court specialist, will be playing in his first hard court tournament in New York since March. Neither of them had faced the world number 1 before.

Daniel Evans (26) and Botic van de Zandschulp appear likely rivals in the third round (Saturday). Neither of them has beaten Alcaraz, who has a 2-0 record in both, although the Briton won the Washington tournament more than a month ago.

In any case, it seems that the first week should not eliminate the current champion of the tournament, which will be seen how From the round of 16, significant threats begin to appear their way.

Cameron Norrie should be the firsta possible opponent in the round of 16. Despite a poor moment of form (he has not won a match since the first round of Wimbledon at the end of June), the Briton is a player who often makes his life difficult.

Undoubtedly, the main course will come in the quarterfinals, where Alcaraz will have to repeat his rivalry from last year against Jannik Sinner. The Italian is one of the players who gives the Murcian the most war, as it became clear this March in the Miami semifinals, when he came back to win and reach the grand final (6-7, 6-4, 6-2). ).

Their head-to-head is 3-3, but the Spanish victories are painful.. The first of these was at Paris Bercy 2021 by a tight 7-6, 7-5, and the last at Indian Wells 2023 by 7-6, 6-3. We left last year’s duel in New York for last, where Alcaraz pulled off an epic victory (6-3, 6-7, 6-7, 7-5, 6-3) in a match won by Sinner in the fourth set and that he let get away for a handful of decisive points that he didn’t know how to define.

The last big obstacle for Alcaraz before the final will come in the semifinals, where he will have to meet Daniil Medvedev. It is true that the Russian clearly lost to the Spaniard in the two games they played this year (6-3, 6-2 in the Indian Wells final and 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 in the Wimbledon semifinals. ), but we do not must forget that the US Open is his favorite tournament and where he usually shows his best level, as he showed in 2019 by putting Rafa Nadal against the ropes (7-5, 6-3, 5- 7, 4-6, 6-4) or in 2021, when he outlasted favorite Novak Djokovic (6-4, 6-4, 6-4) in a final to remember.

Djokovic will surely be waiting for the last one everyone dreams ofa rivalry that will mean the fourth battle in a row, after Roland Garros, Wimbledon and Cincinnati, of a war that is on its way to becoming one of the most outstanding rivalries of recent times.