Spanish tennis already has a wonderful present, so do they have an equally bright future?
In the first four months of this year's men's tennis world, Espanyol has undoubtedly become the biggest winner, in the latest edition of the world rankings released this week, Spain occupies two places in the top ten, namely fourth-ranked Nadal and ninth Alcaraz, if you add Busta, Agut, Virginia and Ramos, there are as many as six Spaniards in the top 32 Grand Slam seeds alone!
More importantly, these players have performed well in the first four months of this year, first Nadal won 20 consecutive victories at the beginning of the year, and achieved a "double grand slam" at the Australian Open, surpassing Federer and Djokovic with 21 titles to become the male player with the most Grand Slam titles in history, this wave of winning streaks until the final of the Indian Wells Masters was ended by the American Fritz, and then Nadal missed the game due to a rib injury.
After Nadal withdrew, Alcaraz successfully took over the baton. In fact, the 18-year-old's breakthrough journey began in Rio after the Australian Open, when he won the first ATP500 title, then reached the semifinals in Indian Wells, followed by the first Masters championship in Miami, and won the third crown of the year at ATP500 Barcelona last week, ranking among the world's top ten for the first time in his career.
In addition to Nadal and Alcaraz, who stand at the top of the pyramid, other Spanish players also have eye-catching performances. Born in 1999, Davedovic Fogina defeated Djokovic at the Monte Carlo Masters, giving the latter a defeat to this year's clay debut, and then Fauregna went all the way to the first final of his career in Monte Carlo, and also made the first three Masters finals this year have Espanyol.
Alcaraz won the title in the men's singles final of the ATP500 Barcelona against compatriot Busta.
In addition, Agut and Ramos also have champions this year, Busta is in the final in Barcelona, and another Spaniard Martinez has won his first career title in Santiago, Chile, and he is currently in the 42nd place of career high. In the ATP Cup at the beginning of the year, despite the absence of Nadal and Alcaraz, the Spanish team led by Agut and Busta still reached the final.
So in the finals of almost all the major competitions this year, you can see the figure of Spaniards, in the past they may have given the first impression of clay experts, but both Nadal and Alcaraz are proving that Spaniards are also competitive on the hard ground, especially Alcaraz is only 18 years old, his first Masters champion came from hard miami, it can be said that this top start style has proved that he is a full-fledged player.
In addition, in the "To Turin" annual championship standings, Nadal and Alcaraz are currently in first and third place, four months have passed this year, the world's first Djokovic is still only in 95th place, and the world's second Medvedev is likely to miss the clay and grass seasons consecutively, so if Nadal and Alcaraz finish in the top two at the end of the year this year, we should not be too surprised.
Spanish tennis already has a wonderful present, so do they have an equally bright future? Looking at their age composition, Nadal is about to turn 36, Busta, Agut and Ramos are also over 30 years old, but Alcaraz is only 18 years old, Virginia and Martinez are not yet 25 years old, but the latter two have not yet proved their strength outside the clay, so in the next few years, can Spanish tennis only rely on Alcaraz to play alone? It still depends on the speed of progress of other young players.
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