Wimbledon and the fate of penalties

Carlos Alcaraz continues to advance steadily at the start of the second week of the Wimbledon tournament and becomes, once again, the only Spanish representative who opts for the final race. His last confrontation against the Chilean player Nicolas Jarry was certainly a tough clash. This time we did not see our tennis player with such ease and superiority. He dropped the second set and only managed to win after a very tight fourth set in which he had to come back from a break initial.

The fact that even the favorite players are subjected to serious trouble is still quite normal in the London event, where the service tends to even the scores a lot or to the irremediable loss of a set when there is a small mismatch in the same. On the grass of Wimbledon is where you have the most pronounced feeling that the game starts with a penalty and that the player is completely at the mercy of his rival, something that is highly illogical. Let’s imagine that a football match began with a direct kick just eleven meters from the goal or that in basketball the plays began with the launch of free throws.

Sometimes when I sat in the box Rafael in the English tournament, the slogan against powerful rivals was to go to one side and try your luck. You have to get to that hazardous point on many occasions to be able to return a rival’s serve.

As I have said before, probably the game on grass courts would be the most attractive of all if something was done to neutralize the service. It is on this type of surface, precisely, where the low bounce of the ball makes it possible to use all the shots and effects, change speeds in the rallies and, in short, look for different strategies that contribute, or would contribute, to a more spectacular game.

But going back to what worries us Spanish fans the most today, Carlos Alcaraz faces a difficult opponent in his fourth round match, the Italian Matteo Berrettini. The finalist of the 2018 edition has a very powerful forehand and a great serve; A good proof of this and the good result they give him is that in his last match against Alexander Zverev, on Saturday, the German only managed to have one ball of break throughout the game and, furthermore, he did not convert it.

An uncomfortable match is expected for the Murcian tennis player, with little chance of maintaining continuity in the background game. Presumably the transalpine tennis player will try to shorten the exchanges and play with maximum aggressiveness and speed. Despite this, I believe that the clear favorite to enter the next round is still Carlos, and that the Italian will have to play very well and not let his guard down at any time if he wants to have any chance of victory.

I do not want to finish this text without highlighting one of the most emotional moments of this edition, if not the most: the great ovation with which the British public received Roger Federer at his entrance to the Royal Box, most likely more than any player will take after any victory this year. How exciting and how satisfying it must be for the already legendary Swiss tennis player to feel the affection, respect and consideration that is given to him in such a magnificent setting. Such an overwhelming demonstration can only be the result of two facts that have occurred together in him as they have not occurred in any other tennis player: his sublime and elegant game and his impeccable behavior throughout such a long and brilliant career. .

If I had been in the stands, I would have applauded with great pleasure and with no less emotion.

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