Sunday, November 10, 2024, 16:10
Carlos Alcaraz has two efforts left this season, the ATP Finals that begin this Monday for him and the Davis Cup that will start next week. Two tournaments in which he plays what would be his first crown as a master and his first salad bowl, with the addition of being the farewell to Rafael Nadal.
The Murcian has been able to rest a week since he lost in the second round of the Paris-Bercy Masters 1,000 and has cleared his calendar in this final stretch of the year to reach this event, the jewel in the crown of the ATP, with guarantees. It will be his second appearance in this tournament, after not being able to participate in 2022 due to a muscle injury and reaching the semifinals in 2023. However, this will be the first time that he appears as a candidate to win, and last year he defeated Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev in the group stage, but was slapped aside by Novak Djokovic in the semifinals. The one from El Palmar arrived exhausted at this stage of the course.
“It would have been a better season with the gold medal, but I give myself an 8.5 or a 9,” Alcaraz, who has won two Grand Slams (Roland Garros and Wimbledon), a Masters, said at the press conference prior to the tournament. 1,000 (Indian Wells) and an ATP 500 (Beijing), in addition to taking Olympic silver in Paris.
There is little to blame the Murcian in a season in which he has won 52 of 63 games and still has the two icings on the cake. The first, the one played in Turin, begins for him this Monday, against an opponent who has the measure perfectly, Casper Ruud.
The Norwegian has crossed his path on four occasions, always coming out defeated and only winning two sets in the final of the US Open in 2022. In addition to the painful 4-0, Ruud arrives after four consecutive defeats, including the quarterfinals in Stockholm and the first rounds of Basel, Paris-Bercy and Metz.
Djokovic’s absence
It was the loss of Djokovic, suffering from an injury, that allowed the race to Turin to relax and Ruud, who had signed up for Metz last week to try to earn enough points for the Italian event, entered without complications at the last hour. Curiously, and despite the fact that, along with the grass, these should be the worst conditions for him, the Norwegian has made a semi-final and a final in his two appearances in Turin.
In 2021 he lost in the semifinals to Daniil Medvedev and in 2022 he lost in the final against Djokovic. His record in the tournament is positive, with five wins and four losses, although he has never beaten a higher-ranked opponent here. On the same day, Alexander Zverev, recent winner at Paris-Bercy and master on two occasions, 2018 and 2021, will face Andre Rublev.
Alcaraz still does not know his opponent on the second matchday, which will be played on Wednesday, since the tournament matches them depending on what happens in the first match. If he wins against Ruud, he will face the winner of Zverev-Rublev and if he loses, the loser. In this way, matches with nothing at stake are avoided for the third day.
Alcaraz is guaranteed to finish the year in third position in the rankings, since even by winning the tournament undefeated, which would add 1,500 points, he could not overtake Zverev in second position. Jannik Sinner, for his part, with an advantage of more than 3,500 points with Alcaraz and 3,000 with Zverev, will be number one at the end of the year for the first time in his career. The undefeated tournament winner will take home €4.4 million, the highest prize in tennis history outside of exhibitions.
