Tomorrow at six o'clock in the morning, the semi-final of the Indian Wells Masters, idol Nadal ushered in the second challenge of his fan brother Alcaraz, a battle of Spanish tennis inheritance.
Spain is the world's traditional tennis power, with a succession of Grand Slam champions and Davis Cups winning one Davis Cup after another. Far from it, near such as Moya, Costa, Ferrero have won the French Open, Moya, Ferrero has been ranked first in the world. After Nadal turned professional in 2001, the son of the Spanish wind took only four years to win the Masters and Grand Slam titles in 2005, becoming the banner of Spanish tennis. Now, 17 years later, Nadal, the god of war of Siban, who is about to turn 36, sits on 21 Grand Slam titles and 36 Masters titles, and still stands at the top of tennis, which is admired.
At the beginning of the 2022 season, Nadal, who returned from injury, unexpectedly came out like a tiger, winning the ATP250 Melbourne, Australian Open and ATP Acapulco three times, winning 19 consecutive victories, creating the best season start in 22 years of his career, becoming the best player in form and record so far this season.
In 2018, a Spanish talented teenager named Alcaraz, born in 2003, turned professional. In the 2020 season, Alcaraz won three challenge championships, 39 wins and 7 losses in all competitions, and the world ranking jumped rapidly from 491 at the beginning of the year to 141, winning the ATP Best Newcomer of the Year Award. In the 2021 season, Alcaraz won 32 wins throughout the year, winning one challenge, one 250 and the ATP New Forces Finals, reaching the quarterfinals of the US Open, and the world ranking continued to soar to 32nd, becoming the youngest player in the world ranking 100 players, and was nominated for the ATP Player of the Year Most Improved Player of the Year Award.
Entering the 2022 season, the 18-year-old Alcaraz was unstoppable and quickly became popular. After losing five sets in the third round of the Australian Open with the world's sixth and Italian handsome Berrettini, he shined in the ATP500 Rio station and won the championship in one fell swoop. 1/4 final three sets revenge Berrettini, semi-final two sets to defeat the Italian veteran Fognini, the final is two sets to defeat the Argentine dwarf Tiger Schwartzmann, the championship gold content is quite OK. With this title, At the age of 18 years and 9 months, Alcaraz became the youngest champion of the ATP500 since its inception in 2009, and the world ranking advanced to the top 20.
With the title at the Indian Wells Masters, Alcaraz continued to be in a fiery state and played quite well. In the third round, he defeated the world's No. 16 compatriot big brother Agut, eliminated the French cool little Black Monfils who defeated the world number one Medvedev in the previous round in two sets, and the quarter-final defeated the defending champion of world No. 12, The British brother Nori, felt hot and in full swing in two sets, ushered in the semi-final with idol Nadal.
Alcalas, who is exactly 17 years younger than Nadal, has regarded the Spanish god of war, Nadal, since childhood, as an idol in his growth path. In addition to the right hand clapping opposite Nadal, Alcaraz is exactly the same as his idol in many ways: he is 1.85 meters tall, he has turned professional at the age of 15, he has two hands back, his favorite bat is the forehand, his favorite field is clay, his favorite tournament is the French Open, and the most supported football club is Real Madrid, who likes to play golf and football. Isn't this a "little Nadal" who is alive and well?
However, Alcaraz, who regards Nadal as an idol and role model, only wants to be himself! He plays more like the Swiss king Federer, who likes to attack, plays a lot of winning points, puts pressure on opponents in front of the net, and uses small ball tactics. The tennis seniors have a lot of encouragement and praise for Alcaraz. Sir Murray, who won and lost to Alcaraz last year, said he had a lot of potential, had a strong offensive firepower and was among the top young players. Tsitsipas said he would be a strong contender for a Grand Slam title with incredible speed and had never seen anyone hit the ball so hard. Zverev Jr. felt the same way, saying that he moved well, hit the ball very strongly, played very well, and the future was bright.
As an idol, Nadal said of Alcaraz: he has great talent and enthusiasm, is humble enough, trains hard, has very good front and backhand, plays very aggressively, is positive and brave, and often comes to the net. Nadal also said he couldn't think of any reason alcaraz not to succeed and was very sure he would be a great player.
When a reporter at the press conference asked Nadal if he had given any advice to his fan brother Alcaraz as an idol, Nadal said: "He has not given him any advice, because he has not asked me, and he has a good team himself. But Alcaraz doesn't think so! He said he thanked Nadal for learning the importance of always keeping his morale high and giving it his all from the first to the last point of the game. While he says it's almost impossible to do what Nadal does, it's a huge motivator to keep moving forward.
On his 18th birthday on May 5, 2021, the second round of the Madrid Masters, fan brother Alcaraz had the honor to play against idol Nadal for the first time, losing 1:6, 2:6. Alcaraz said he was very nervous, but the game benefited him a lot and had to learn how to play against such a strong opponent. If you can play more of these games, you will grow faster as a tennis player. Looking ahead to his second encounter, Alcaraz said he had now trained with Nadal a few times and understood better how to deal with him in the game. This semi-final is bound to be a tough one, but he will try to enjoy it, because playing against his idol is not something that happens often. He wants to play at his best and do everything possible to seize the chance of winning.
Tomorrow at six o'clock in the morning, the indian wells masters semi-finals, the second meeting between idol Nadal and fan brother Alcaraz, is also a battle of Spanish tennis inheritance. Because no one in this world is always young, but there are always young people. Alcaraz, learn from your idols, stop getting nervous and fight bravely! Sooner or later, you will take over the flag of Spanish tennis from your idol Nadal and create your own brilliant performance. (Source: Tennis House Author: Colorful Bean Powder)