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London.- “It’s funny because when you go from clay to grass on the circuit, the Australian names that were missing come back. On grass you see us all. It’s our nature.” Aleksander Vukic is one of those Australians who spends the spring in agony, waiting for his chance to come and settle in. Even more so if, as in his case, he has learned to play in the country’s biggest city.In Sydney we play on synthetic grass, which is even faster.. And it has sand in it, so I grew up with that a lot. That’s why a lot of Australians have a very flat backhand. We feel very comfortable with it,” he explains in an interview with Clay.
That’s what Alcaraz will encounter in the second round of Wimbledon. Perhaps not a player of his level who is ranked 69th, but probably someone who is much more accustomed to playing on grass. And he believes that this, precisely, can be a great asset.It’s a grass tennis match, which makes it more competitive.“He had to survive two tight sets in the first round. I was watching him before my match and I think the surface helps to close the gaps. If you serve well, if you take care of your business, anything can happen,” said the Australian.
The mentality, at least, is there, he is not willing to let himself be done so easily. “After all, These spectacular tennis players like Alcaraz are also human “And they get nervous too. There are a lot of things going on, so I have to be there, I have to be ready to take advantage of the opportunities,” the Australian player reasons.
Incredible fight!!! 🙌🔥
Aleks Vukic saves a match point and breaks back twice in the fifth set to defeat world no. 45 Seb Ofner 6-7(9), 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(8). 🤝🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/ksq1jN9BiA
— Jedd Zetzer (@JeddZetzer) July 1, 2024
The two players have already met and the Australian won. The surprise of this statement, which it is, is lessened when one knows that they faced each other in a qualifying tournament for Roland Garros when Alcaraz was only 17 years old. It is not much, although he surely remembers what happened.
Time has passed since then and now they live in different dimensions. In fact, she has become a reference for him, someone to look up to: “I remember seeing him last year when he won Queens, when he won Wimbledon. From how he was playing at the start of the tour in London, to how he finished playing at the end of Wimbledon. It was something I learned a lot from, in a way, how he adapts to situations. Because he wasn’t playing well at the beginning of Queens, and he figured out how to move. “I watched his moves carefully to adapt them to my game, because he is very stable. He is a guy who constantly accepts all challenges,” says the Australian.
So, once again, it’s up to him to try to solve the enigma: “I’ll try to investigate it in the next few hours before our match. I’ll watch it with my team, we’ll go over the game plan and all that.“He doesn’t have too many weak points. He has many strong points, but I’ll have to play extremely well.”
Then he goes on to say that, in reality, the grass shortens the distance, that a bad match is penalized more here, that if he serves well he can… all those things that, while true, often end up colliding with reality.
“If you serve well, if you take care of your things, anything can happen. After all, these spectacular tennis players like Alcaraz are also human and they get nervous too. There are many things, so I have to be there, I have to be ready to take advantage of the opportunities,” Vukic explains in his interview. And there is a lot of truth in that, you can ask Bouzas who on Tuesday beat Vondrousova on the centre court.
This is a court where Alcaraz and Vukic will not be playing, as the organisation has decided to move the match to Court 1. This is normal in the tournament, with very little play on each court each season in order to protect the grass as much as possible.
Vukic’s role model is Djokovic, who he faced once. He lost, but he took a way of looking at things from that that he will also carry over to his match against Alcaraz. “These guys win a lot of matches just by being who they are, more than by playing, and that’s a big challenge because they have that aura around them. And Djokovic is one of my idols, so he has that aura. I take many of my mental notes from him.. So, going into that match, the biggest challenge was to try to play tennis and not play against Novak. And I think I did a good job in that sense, so that was one of the lessons that gave me the confidence to play tennis and not play against him, and I will do my best to do that against Alcaraz as well,” said the tennis player.
Something else unites him with Djokovic. Vukic may not sound very Australian, but he was born in the country. His parents, however, are from far away, from Serbia, but like so many other families they were driven out by the war and had to find a place to rebuild without seeing the bombs fall. “Knowing what they went through and just growing up with them, I think it definitely made me stronger“I was lucky and privileged to have had a peaceful childhood thanks to them making difficult decisions. I used that to my advantage. They are a great inspiration,” says the Australian tennis player.
2024-07-03 04:54:21
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