Madrid, April 27. (Press Europe) –
Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz will begin his football career next Friday at the Mutua Madrid Open, the fourth Masters 1000 tournament of the season, with the aim of defending the title achieved in 2022, which will also allow him to have the option to become number one. At Roland Garros, the second “Grand Slam” this season.
Murcián is undoubtedly the big draw of the clay court tournament hosted by Caja Mágica, not only because of his quality, form and ability to put on a show, but also because of the host of casualties that affected the men’s draw.
Neither Serbian Novak Djokovic, currently ranked world number one, nor Spaniard Rafa Nadal, who won four of his five titles in Madrid on clay, will be in the capital due to injury. And Alcaraz overcame them on his way to winning the title last year when he had to get off the Balearic player in the quarter-finals and the Belgrade player in the semi-finals, before he overcame German Alexander Zverev with power in the final, a player who is still not there. His best level after his serious injury at the last Roland Garros.
The loss of Null opens the door for El Palmar, who, during the tournament, hopes to celebrate his twentieth birthday (May 5), to regain number one. Defending the title will put him on a tray because he will remain five points behind the Balkans and will only have to play in the Masters 1000 in Rome, where he does not defend any points, to reach Paris at the top.
Alcaraz arrives in good shape at the Mutua Madrid Open, where he will be the first seed and will try to be the second, after Rafa Nadal (2013-2014), to reissue the title. Juan Carlos Ferrero’s schoolboy defended the title in Barcelona to add his third title of the season, and second on this surface after the one he achieved in Buenos Aires in February. Now, on the other hand, he will have to adapt to different circumstances due to the rise of DC in his fight to reach ten titles with his fourth Masters 1000 title.
The US Open champion, not earlier than 4:00 p.m., will begin his journey on Manolo Santana Court against Finn Emil Russofori, 41 in the world and his first dangerous rival, to whom he has already lost in 2021 at the Masters. 1000 Miami (USA), a tournament he was in a few weeks before reaching the quarter-finals.
If he beats this premiere, the road will only get tougher with a potential re-release of the last-16 final against Zverev. The theoretical opponent in the quarterfinals will be the Russian Andrei Rublev, the winner this year in Monte Carlo, while in the semifinals the Norwegian Casper Rudd and the Danish Holger Rohn, one of the young players at the moment, reached the finals. Principality and champion last week in Munich (Germany).
On the other side of the table stands out the figure of the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, who reached the final in 2019 and just lost the final of the Barcelona Open to Alcaraz. There is also Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, the second favourite, but his performance on clay is not usually the best and could open the door for other more regular players such as Britain’s Cameron Norrie, this year’s executioner on clay in the Rio de Janeiro final. Morcian.
