This bloke Alcaraz, sometimes he’s like a combo of the best of Rafa - and Novak. He doesn’t have an obviously terrifying one-shot killer weapon like Rafa’s forehand, but he has the tenacity and resilience of Novak for chasing and playing clean shots, without also the weaker backhand Rafa had at that age. He reminds me more of Novak, really, than of Rafa, except that he seems to have Rafa’s consistently tough mentality, whereas Novak can be ruthless at times, but brittle and gone AWOL at other times. Rafa’s more complete in this regard, and Carlito seems to be similar.
I don’t know, he’s a young lad and he’s yet to face the hardship young players face where they’re expected to win, when they have the target in their back - but he’s getting there now, and he’s smiling and enjoying it. Generally you’d say that Novak is hot favourite today, and he is, but he’s not facing a youngster who’ll be overawed, or crushed if he loses. He’s facing a younger version of himself, in a lot of ways.
I read a stupid post on social media today where somebody was wondering why Rafa doesn’t just retire, he’s old enough to be Carlos dad FFS - but amid the stupidity and short term memory problems of this post, it did bring it home to me that the Big 3 have seen off to many futile and cowardly generations of has-beens, never-beens and now, never-will-beens, that it’s chronologically inevitable that someday they’ll just get too old, and start facing youngsters who never suffered against them when the Big 3 were masters of the whole sporting world. Youngsters who don’t know them, except as legends from the past who’d make a cute notch on the bedpost. That they start facing kids who have their own preoccupations, hunger and hurry to succeed. This kid might be the best of them, or only just one more of them, but it’s a bit of a reminder and wake up for me, that when great players start to decline, it can be at the exact moment that great players start to rise, and that the end for the former can come come swift and brutally at the hands of the latter..