Alcaraz, facing the challenge of two duels in 24 hours

“So, tonight there’s a barbecue, right?” Carlos Alcaraz addresses the British Cameron Norrie, directed by the Argentine Facundo Lugones and with whom he has just shared an hour of high-intensity training. “Here we go, hitting it hard. You have to be prepared, ”adds the Murcian shortly after, at the moment of the handshake once he enters the locker room sweaty, aware that a good one is ahead of him: if possible, two games in 24 hours. That is the goal. This Friday afternoon (around 2:30 p.m., Movistar), number one faces Frenchman Alexandre Muller in the second and, Wimbledon things, from the rain in London, he would face the next season with little room for recovery.

“It is what it is, here things work like that”, they resign themselves to their team. “I hope things go well and I can also play on Saturday. It is not an easy situation, but it is so. It happens to Carlos and also to other players. Deep down, it may seem like there’s a mess, but they’ve got it all under control here. The English know what they are doing ”, his father, Carlos, transmits to this newspaper, confident that his son can maintain the competitive inertia that he adopted since landing on the grass at Queen’s, almost 20 days ago. From there, five victories and a title in the preparatory tournament, and a very promising start at the All England Club, where everyone was impressed by Alcaraz’s immediate adaptation to grass.

“The truth is that everything is going very well, but here you can’t relax for a single second. We are going little by little, we must go like this, ”says a person from his environment after the session, in which the Murcian has considerably increased the pace compared to the previous days. If he initially opted to grease himself with a sparring local [Adam Jones, 1.164 del mundo], this time a much more real essay with Norrie, who doesn’t fully understand how the Spanish is able to draw the drop shots so well. Alcaraz clarifies it for him: “Since I was little, when I started with my father, I had half an hour practicing them, every day. So and so, ”he reproduces him with a double movement, cutting the imaginary ball with the forehand and the backhand.

After making his debut on Court 1, the 20-year-old Spaniard will set foot on the Center Court with the good feelings obtained on the first day, against the Frenchman Jeremy Chardy. He and the Frenchman Muller (26 years old and 84th) have never collided so far and whoever wins will face off against the Chilean Nicolas Jarry, who on Thursday came back against Marco Cecchinato and would mean a level jump in the hypothetical case of that Alcaraz manages to advance to the third season of the tournament. The weather was benevolent and although the clouds threatened early in the day, the day was able to pass normally and the picture is readjusting.

Bouzas, a happy loser

Affected by the delays, Alejandro Davidovich (7-6(3), 6-1 and 6-2 to Arthur Fills) and Roberto Carballes (6-3, 6-4 and 6-4 to Matteo Arnaldi) resolved their respective commitments and They will meet today with Botic van de Zandschulp and Holger Rune, respectively. In return, Spanish tennis suffered five eliminations. The young Jessica Bouzas, a debutant in a major, fell to Anhelina Kalinina (6-4 and 6-3) and Nuria Parrizas (6-2 and 6-1 for Aliaksandra Sasnovich), Cristina Bucsa (6-1 and 6 -4 with Jessica Pegula) and Rebeka Masarova (6-3 and 6-1 against Elisabetta Cocciaretto). Meanwhile, Jaume Munar could not with the Italian Lorenzo Musetti (6-4, 6-3 and 6-1).

Despite the loss, the first-time Bouzas gushed about her first Grand Slam experience. The 20-year-old Galician, who defines herself as a complete player, inspired by Sharapova and Muguruza, assessed: “It has been a very nice experience, especially coming from the qualy [fase clasificatoria, en la que gano tres partidos]. The truth is that the party has been good. In the end I was competing against a very good player, with much more background than me. It’s learning.” The 167th of the WTA moved to Madrid to train and is supervised by the former coach of Paula Badosa, Javier Marti. “He has taught me not to complain”, he specifies in reference to the injuries that cut short the career of the Madrid coach.

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