The Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz will return to the court on Wednesday evening for the ‘Garden Cup‘, a friendly competition presented at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Alcaraz, holder of four career Grand Slam titles, will face American Ben Shelton. This will be the opportunity for the world No. 3 to take back the collar, a week and a half after representing Spain at the Davis Cup, the last official competition of his compatriot Rafael Nadal in his career.
The American Jessica Pegula will also compete in this friendly competition, against her compatriot Emma Navarro, who lost in the semi-finals of the last United States Open.
Pegula, who is from Buffalo, herself reached the final of the US Open last September, shortly after confirming to the organizers her presence at the ‘Garden Cup’. However, she lost to the current world No. 1, the Belarusian player Aryna Sabalenka.
“After this great result, I realize that being able to come here (to Madison Square Garden) is even cooler,” Pegula said.
The latter took advantage of a slightly longer break than that of Alcaraz, in particular to offer additional rest to the knee which bothered her during the WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia at the beginning of November. So she took a three-week break, then started training again about two weeks ago to be ready for her match on Wednesday night.
