Do not believe you, kind readers, because of the title of this column that I am going to compete with Lourdes Ferro or Vero Lavalle, the two professionals of the stars, no, I am going to refer to the tennis players who, in my opinion, fall into different categories of white sports stars, the one we are so passionate about, tennis.
Everything started to spin in my head, when watching a Seba Baez match, in a 250 tournament in Naples (thanks to that wonder that is Star +, tournaments that are not televised on ESPN) I found out that I had lost 11 games in a row , a streak that began with a lost final against his compatriot Francisco Cerundolo. Seba was the subject of a column after winning his first tournament in Estoril, reaching the top 30 and aiming very high for the rest of the year, but in reality he said otherwise. And so we come to the first category of stars, one that nobody wants to belong to, the Fleeting, those that have a dazzling but ephemeral brightness. The most graphic example is that of a Spaniard surnamed Carretero whom I saw play a Challenger in Punta del Este in 1994 without pain or glory, or rather with much more pain than glory, and in 1996 he won the then Hamburg M1000, with victory over a Rolanga champion like Alex Corretja included.
At that time he touched the sky with his hands, until one knows why, he disappeared from the firmament of the ATP, he retired at his young 26 years, and today he comments on tennis for Spanish TV and has some blog-type work on what itself, but its light dissipated very quickly, the typical shooting star.
I am not saying that this is the case with Baez, time will tell, but never so true is that saying that it is easier to arrive than to stay, with which I partially disagree, it is SO difficult to arrive as to stay, only a select few arrive and only a select few remain.
Those who arrive and remain are the Established stars, those who traveled the difficult path for almost everyone and very simple for a few, the cracks that mark times in our sport, those who at an early age, before their twenties, reached what highest, the Sampras, Agassi, Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, and now with Carlitos Alcaraz, at 19, the youngest in history to reach the highest step of the ranking.
With Alcaraz one caveat, is he an established star?? It is still NOT the answer for this humble scribe, he has everything to be, but time has not passed since his arrival at the top, we have to see how he handles the pressures, the fame, the girls who are going to get close to him like bees honey, etc, it is not easy to be the 1 in the world, for something since the arrival of the Big 4 to that place, we are talking about 2004, only Medvedev could do it and for a very short time, taking advantage of the fact that Nole put a bucket on his head and was not vaccinated. Charly has everything to be Established, but like Baez, time will tell which category she belongs to.
Also watching another 250, the European Open on Star +, it occurred to me another 2 star category in the match, great match, defined in the tie break of the third in favor of Seby Korda over Dominique Thiem, the Ascendants, like the American ( whom we talked about last week), the Rising Stars, the ones who with all their hunger for unsatisfied glory, go to the place of the cracks, to get them out of that chair of the chosen ones, the Korda, Mussetti, Rune, Auger Alliassime ( the Canadian can enter the Established, he arrived a while ago and remains) and the last one, the Returning Stars, like the Austrian.
I always liked Thiem very much, he owns an enviable record on the Big 3, between 2019 and 2021 he lost 4 games against the 3 best in history and won 9, yes sir, incredible but true, out of 13 games against Roger Rafa and Nole, won 9. For very few, I would say that only he could do it.
As if the above were not enough, in the midst of a pandemic and linked a lot with Djokovic’s disqualification for that involuntary hit on the line judge (it is incredible that with a pandemic and thousands of cases Nole was able to play in 2020 and now almost without cases he could not because do not get vaccinated) Domy wins the US Open lifting 2 sets in the final against Zverev, and from then on, the night came to the Austrian. Injuries, operations, poor handling of the pressures, took him from 3rd in the ranking to 700th, and from there the recovery began, which was not easy at the beginning. It was very difficult for him to win games, and I honestly thought that being a millionaire like he was and with the glory already won, retirement was the most likely.
It was not like that, slowly and to the admiration of who signs this, the results began to arrive, today it is 132, and I think that the return to close-ups, at one point a chimera, can now happen.
Another example of Returning Star is Guille Cañas, who after a suspension for doping played the Uruguay Open here, a Challenger of the best in the circuit, 3 months later he beat Federer twice in consecutive weeks, and was crowned in the Toronto M1000 .
And as far as we go, I am open to considering other categories of tennis stars if you, kind readers, suggest it to me.
