In the men’s game, there have been few players as dominating as Rafael Nadal. The Spaniard has many unique qualities which have led him to the pinnacle of the game with 20 Grand Slam titles. Now, there is another Spaniard on the rise, Carlos Alcaraz Garfia. 

The teenage sensation has been making great progress on the men’s Tour and is often compared to his compatriot, Rafael Nadal. Recently, French Open director Guy Forget drew parallels between the Spaniards. He found the youngster’s ball-striking ability similar to that of Rafa. 

He spoke about these two talented athletes and stated, “I don’t know if you share my opinion, but every tournament he seems to learn to become stronger, to be punchier. He makes me think of all these new players like Rafa, Mats Wilander, Michael Chang. and he’s so young and yet he has so much experience. He has so much willingness to win every single point and he’s already very strong.”

“Wanted to win because his life depended upon it” Guy Forget on Carlos Alcaraz 

Forget saw him play and was awestruck by the manner in which he was striking the ball. He was in awe of his desire and willingness to give it his all. It looked as if his life depended on the line.  

The Frenchman added, “I saw him against Carlos Ferrero, playing the qualifiers and when I watched him, the first thing that struck me was the noise when he hit the ball. I thought, Oh, my God, it’s very loud and I could see this resilience, pugnacity. He was trying to win every single point. Nobody was watching him. It seemed every single point he wanted to win because life depended upon it.”

The teenager is moving in the right direction 

At the moment, Carlos is heading in the right direction. After managing to knock down Tsitsipas in the US Open this year, one can say that the Spaniard has a bright future ahead. In fact, he even knocked out Berrettini in Vienna last week.  

The former French player stated, “Now he played Berrettini. He’s breathtaking to watch and he’s gaining huge momentum right now. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him very quickly play and beat Tsitsipas, for instance. He seems to be very interested in that kind of category.”

The two Spaniards clashed this season; Rafa beat Alcaraz in Madrid 6-1, 6-2. It’ll be interesting to see if Alcaraz can take up the mantle of Spanish tennis from Nadal.   

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