Carlos Alcaraz put this Saturday in Milan another pike in a sport, tennis, in which he will triumph if nothing goes wrong and luck is with him. The Murcian won the NextGen ATP Finals with a shocking display of strength, quality, determination and nerves of steel. With that recipe he swallowed in the final settled in the Allianz Cloud, a beautiful pavilion that he will never forget, Sebastian Korda, a theoretically more accomplished player, aged 21, whom he stopped again and again until he despaired and defeated him: 4-3 (5), 4-2 and 4-2 in 1h22. “This is amazing, winning this tournament means a lot to me. I’m excited. I started out very nervous and I had to calm down to save the break points, ”he said while still on the track. And he said goodbye at the classy trophy delivery, in Italian: “Grazie a tutti, ci vediamo el prossimo anno” (Thanks to all, see you next year).
Alcaraz is the most brilliant champion that the U21 Masters has given in its four editions, because in addition to reaching the undefeated title, he did so with a balance of 15-1 in setsFigures that neither Chung, Tsitsipas nor Sinner, the previous winners, had credited. He is also the youngest to reach 32 wins (with 17 losses) in the same season since Russian Andrey Medvedev did it at the same age in 1992 (32-11). And you can still do better if you play and win a match with Spain in the Davis Cup Finals.
Right now, Carlos is the undisputed leader of NextGen. Someone will say that in Milan there were neither Sinner nor Auger-Aliassime, who were erased to compete unsuccessfully in Stockholm. But the Spanish beat the Italian recently in Paris-Bercy and the Canadian could not make a match at the last US Open because he played injured. In the youth tournament he has swept against rivals of all kinds. In the final, against a server as good at least as he, who he gradually undermined doing what he always preaches: improve. He adjusted his remains and also the crosshairs of his drive, runaway at the start of the game due to an excessive application of aggressiveness that his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, another champion, a number one who was hugged to celebrate the triumph, asked him with good judgment.
Action and reaction
As he himself acknowledged, Alcaraz started off a custard, but he had the courage to calm down at those decisive points after the deuce that he handled so well throughout the week. In this way he saved the stumbling block of the first set and let go, began to serve better and err less. Korda, very dependent on his service and less stable from the back of the court than his opponent, noticed how the pressure against him rose like foam and he could no longer stop the titan of El Palmar, who brings Spain the first success of the Navy in the NextGen. At the age of 14 he won a mini masters in London that was played in parallel to the senior one in 2017, in which an injured Rafa Nadal competed. In Milan, Charly has climbed a step. In this progression the following would be the ATP Finals. The future belongs to you.