Carlos Alcaraz is back in action. This week, the young Spaniard returned to clay in Buenos Aires, overcoming a first obstacle on the night of Thursday to Friday against the Argentine qualifier Camilo Ugo Carabelli, 134th in the world, in two sets (6-2, 7-5) at the 2nd round. Like the end of the 2023 financial year and the 2024 Australian Open, he did not show himself to be completely sovereign. For several months, it has no longer evolved quite at the stratospheric level seen at Wimbledon for example last July. But Daniil Medvedev is not really worried about him.
In an exclusive interview with Eurosport, the Russian wanted to put into perspective the poor performance of one of his main rivals. “He started very strong, it’s crazy. He’s the youngest world number 1 in the history of the game, that says a lot. That’s why at the moment, since he’s losing maybe -just a few more matches than before, we see people starting to say: ‘Oh maybe he lost a little bit of confidence.’ He is still only 20 years old, he is very young, so it is normal that sometimes he has ups and downs,” he said.
Big show, big victory: Medvedev’s gem against Alcaraz
We knew he had incredible talent as soon as he arrived on the circuit
And for good reason, Alcaraz already has two Grand Slam tournaments under his belt, one more than the recent finalist of the Australian Open. And Medvedev himself has had a tougher time in the 2022 season having already been toppled – Jannik Sinner inflicting the same fate on him a few weeks ago – by Rafael Nadal in the final in Melbourne. And the Russian, who emerged victorious from their last Grand Slam duel in the semi-final of the US Open, was keen to emphasize to what extent and in what way his young rival was exceptional.
“The talent he has is quite incredible. We knew it straight away when he arrived on the circuit. I remember he was around the Top 100 and he was hitting the ball with Rublev at the training. Andrey is one of the biggest hitters in tennis today, and at the time Carlos was 17. I was watching and I was like, ‘Wow, he hits harder than Andrey. This guy has a hell of a potential'”, recalled Gilles Cervara’s protégé.
Ultimately, for Medvedev, the main challenge for Alcaraz now lies outside the tennis court. “What’s going to be interesting is to see how he’s going to deal with all the things that come with being a big player, a lot of sponsors and interests and stuff like that,” he added. “comes easily, others feel the pressure and deal with it differently. I think he’s still too young to draw conclusions, let’s see how he goes later.” After hatching, digestion in short. The rest remains to be written.