19 Year Old Tennis Phenom Carlos Alcaraz Just Took Down Rafa Nadal On Clay And Continued His Meteoric Rise To Super Stardom
The monster in Carlos Alcaraz refuses to stop in his path of destruction through the sport of tennis. What this 19 year old (just had his birthday yesterday) continues to do is straight up beyond belief. I'm not sure anyone in tennis has ever been this good at this age. Every time I watch him I struggle to find any flaws in his game other than a lack of experience, which is waning by the day.
Today Alcaraz faced maybe his greatest test yet: in Spain on the clay, with the King of Clay standing on the other side of the net and the King of Spain sitting court-side. You want to test your nerves as a 19 year old? Here's all of it.
Well, that didn't phase the kid in the slightest. Alcaraz completely outplayed Nadal in the opening set. He broke Rafa three times and simply steamrolled the world no. 4. out of the gates. The way he turned Rafa's serve into offense of his own was stunning.
He was clearly rattled in the 2nd set after taking a tough fall and rolling his ankle a bit which allowed Nadal to take advantage and runaway with that set, leveling the match.
Honestly was a bummer and it looked like that would be all for him, but Carlos roared back and gained back the momentum somehow in the deciding set. That match winner at the top of the blog was absurd and I'll show it again here for good measure.
Multiple times in that point did it seem like Rafa had it won, only for Carlos to someone steal it and win the match.
Tomorrow Novak Djokovic awaits. After struggling in his first few matches back to the tour, Djokovic has regained his form. He rolled Hurkacz today and will look to really reassert himself tomorrow against Carlos. If this kid can take down the world no.1 tomorrow then it's just over for everyone else. I'm curious what the line will come out as. Today Carlos was actually a slight favorite over Nadal. Could the oddsmakers run that back against Djokovic?
Update: Alcaraz -124 over Djokovic. I will be taking a trip over to New Jersey to bet on the kid via the Barstool Sportsbook
If you haven't watched this kid play yet I urge you to tune in tomorrow on the Tennis Channel. My guess is it will be a 10am match.