There's No Escaping Alcaraz: 19 Year Old Tennis Phenom Continues His Reign of Terror And Eviscerates World No. 3 Zverev In The Madrid Final
He did it again folks. Carlos Alcaraz obliterated the World No. 3 Alexander Zverev today just after taking down Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in consecutive days. Not too bad for your first few days as a 19 year old.
Today was a legitimate laugher. I didn't give Zverev much of a chance to test Alcaraz today and he promptly got steamrolled in just over an hour of play. If you didn't know any better you'd assume Zverev was the 19 year old. The German went into this match with zero game plan whatsoever and it showed. Ending on two consecutive double faults was vintage Zverev.
The Alcaraz drop shot may have to be outlawed from the sport. No one has any answer for this thing, it's crazy.
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For the longest time tennis has begged for a young stud to come up and give the Big 3 a real challenge. The hope was for any of Tsitsipas, Zverev, Thiem, Dimitrov, Medvedev, Sinner, Rublev, Shapo, Berrettini, Felix, etc to take the jump and become the guy that would disrupt the natural order. It wasn't until Thiem's 2020 US Open title that a man born in the 1990s or later won a slam. Medvedev winning last year's US Open was a nice surprise too, but Nadal got the best of him at the Aussie in the next slam. Safe to say for a while the Big 3 had out-lasted the next generation. That is until now…
Finally we have a guy who is going to put fear in Nadal, Djokovic, and everyone else's eyes. Medvedev can certainly still be a threat when playing his best, but Carlos Alcaraz is the best player in the world at the moment. His ranking says he's sixth, which is crazy in itself considering he was outside the top 100 a year ago, but there is no one else in the world playing better than him right now.
I'm very interested to see Medvedev-Alcaraz on hard courts. Daniil is one of the game's best defenders and has an unorthodox style of play that can fluster anyone. I also wish Fed was healthy and playing like his old self a few years ago. To see a young stud like Carlos out-class Rafa and Novak like this makes me wonder how Roger would have handled him. I highly doubt we see that level again, but I've said that before only to be proven wrong.
Rome is next where Carlos is currently the +275 favorite to take home the title on the Barstool Sportsbook. He's also +200 to win the French Open in a few weeks. The secret is out and the whole world knows about Carlos Alcaraz now. He's no longer the hunter, he's the hunted.
Update: Just kidding Carlos just pulled out of Rome to save himself for the French. Really smart move to not overwork himself.