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A16 sports
Tuesday 13 sepTember 2022
Carlos Alcaraz, 19, US Open champ, No. 1, unique
NEW YORK (AP) — Carlos Al-
caraz got out of bed Mon-
day as a U.S. Open cham-
pion, as the No. 1-ranked
player in men's tennis at
age 19 — and, truth be
told, exhausted.
"I woke up dead," the
Spaniard said through that
already-familiar wide smile
during an interview with
The Associated Press that
followed a Times Square
photo shoot with his finger-
print-smudged first Grand
Slam trophy.
"So many tough days in a
row. High intensity. High
level," said Alcaraz, the first
man in 30 years to win five-
setters in the fourth round,
quarterfinals and semifinals
and still come away with
the title at Flushing Mead- 12, 2022, in New York.
ows. "I don't know how I
played so many tough and
So, too, does the rest of the
world.
His youth certainly con-
tributes to the fascination
with Alcaraz as the sport
looks for a fresh face after
decades of dominance
by Rafael Nadal, Novak
Djokovic and Roger Feder-
er, who each has at least
20 Grand Slam titles.
Alcaraz is the first teenager
to top the ATP rankings, the
first teenager to win the U.S.
Open since Pete Sampras
in 1990, the first teenager to
win any major tournament
since Nadal in 2005.
Asked what he considers
his best quality, Alcaraz
paused to ponder, then
chuckled sheepishly.
U.S. Open men's singles tennis champion Carlos Alcaraz poses in Times Square, Monday, Sept. "I'm a dynamic player. I
can do anything on court,"
Associated Press he said. "The opponent
can't read my shots. In
long matches." some moments, I can try
By the end of that run, (unique) shots. I can do a
which included saving lot of shots."
a match point during his Like the behind-the-back
5-hour, 15-minute quar- one against Sinner, say. Or
terfinal victory over Jan- the sprinting-away-from-
nik Sinner, then a 4-hour, the-net, twisting flick of
19-minute semifinal victory a forehand he pulled off
over Frances Tiafoe, before more than once against
Sunday's 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (1), 6-3 Tiafoe. Or the landing-on-
victory over Casper Ruud, his-belly-on-the-run fore-
Alcaraz was spent. hand that just barely missed
Not that he was about to against Ruud.
let anyone know. "I've always been like that.
"You have to show the op- I never give up. I just be-
ponents you are good, you lieve I can win every point,"
are fine. But you're dealing Alcaraz said. "If the point
with problems all the time. seems lost, I still believe I
You have to know that — have a chance to get the
and you have to overcome ball, to keep the point alive.
that. You have to be fine So I run. And I consider my-
with that," Alcaraz said, sit- self fast."
ting in a stuffed chair on the Ruud considers Alcaraz a
top floor of a Manhattan mixture of Nadal's speed
hotel, skyscrapers jutting and Djokovic's flexibility.
beyond the windows. "Af- "It makes us other players
ter the quarterfinals against feel like you need to paint
Jannik, I woke up the next the lines, sort of, to be able
day and I almost couldn't to hit a winner. Sometimes
walk. But you have to give even that's not enough,"
everything you have inside. said Ruud, a 23-year-old
All the hard work you put in from Norway who is now
every day is for that." ranked No. 2 after two run-
That hard work is what ner-up finishes at the past
transformed a body his three Slams.
coach, 2003 French Open "He's very fast. He's very
champion and U.S. Open quick. He's a great mover,"
finalist Juan Carlos Ferrero, Ruud said. "He can get to
likened to "spaghetti; very balls that we've probably
thin" when he teamed up never seen before."
with a 15-year-old Alcaraz. Alcaraz grew up admiring
"No muscles at all. Not in Nadal, who's 36, and Fe-
the back, not in the legs," derer, 41 — "but," he said
Ferrero said. "But obviously Monday, "a little bit more
we saw something very Rafa, because he's Span-
special." ish." q