the last two days New York it’s being one of those pressure cookers where everything is cooked over high heat and low heat. The sun does not forgive and the humidity suffocates. For anyone, the shade or the air conditioning are refuge, but neither one nor the other is an option for the tennis players who play the US Open. You can record Carlos Alcaraz, who has sweated his stuff before securing the go to the second round in the great new yorker after a pArtido as entertaining as it is demanding against Sebastián Baez. The match ended early, when the Murcian was up two sets, 7-5 and 7-5, and began to lead 2-0 in the third, due to the Early withdrawal of the Argentine.
Alcaraz expected difficult conditions, but “I didn’t think they were going to be so tough”. And she had to adjust “little by little & rdquor; to that oppressive heat and humidity, but also to a rival, the 37 in the world, who never made things easy for him until a muscle injury, for which he received treatment after the second set, forced him to leave shortly afterward to tears and applause.
The applause was deserved and the ending, as Alcaraz acknowledged, “horrible & rdquor; and “the worst possible”. Because Baez was not intimidated by this Alcaraz who has returned to Flushing Meadows as number four in the world. And one and the other had offered to the fans of the Arthur Ashe one of the most entertaining games that have been seen in the first two days of the last big of the year.
For more than an hour in the second set, one and the other left behind a trail of those points that give life to viral videos. Almost impossible at times. Ridiculous even, but of that ridiculousness that makes the public stand up. And the 19 break points that were accumulated also give an idea of the intense give and take that was waged on the court.
Remarkable
It was understood later that Alcaraz showed himself to the press “very happy to have passed and be able to play the second round & rdquor ;, where Another Argentine awaits him, Federico Coria, who needed only two hours and three minutes, 27 less than those played by Alcaraz and Baez, to win his first match in three sets.
“Carlitos” it was also said “very happy” with the level displayed on the track. Put to qualify himself, he gave himself “a sevena good grade”. And perhaps there had been, as he himself said, brilliance, but he had known “manage the moment, be aggressive, focus on the pointss”. Of course he had played anything but a bad game.
In his first press conference, as usual, he was asked questions about how all the labels that accompany his name influence him, especially that of being “the next Nadal”. And Alcaraz acknowledged that “it is some pressure&rdquor ;, but he reiterated that he tries not to think about it. “I don’t consider myself the next nothing. I am number 4, the type of player that is in the moment, not in the next generation, or a player of the future & rdquor ;, she said. “Am fighting with the best in the world in the best tournaments. I try to enjoy just enjoy”.
The New York public, who already fell at his feet last year when he reached the quarterfinals, continues to do so with him. And the options to become the youngest number 1 at 19 if it reaches the final they are still there, cooking with sweat and, for now, joy.
Muguruza and Badosa, forward
Also “happy” she confessed Garbiñe Muguruza, that this Tuesday with a victory against the Danish Clara Tauson by 6-3 and 7-6 (7-5) he has secured not only the pass to the second round, where Linda Fruhvirtova, the Czech classified in the previous phase, awaits him, but also an iinjection of “joy and energy to continue training and competing” in a year “complicated of victories”.
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“I’m feeling the toll of many years in the circuit“, recognized the Spanish-Venezuelan, who spoke of a “bassoon sometimes tennissometimes mentalsometimes from Energy…”. And that’s why victory sees her as a “motivation”. “When you don’t play many games, you train a lot and you ask yourself, when am I going to compete? When does the game come?” he explained. “When it comes and you get the victory, it’s like: ‘come on, it’s possible’. This tells me that I’m in the tournament, I’m in the second round, who knows? Who knows? “
It is a question that can also be asked Paula Badosa. Although she lost the first set against the Ukrainian Lesla Tusrenko, she ended up winning 3-6, 7-6 (7-4) and 6-3 and on Thursday they will meet in the second round with Croatian Petra Martic.