Men’s final of the French Open: Alcaraz aims for a third Grand Slam, Zverev for a first
Carlos Alcaraz, of Spain, returns to face Lorenzo Musetti, of Italy, during the Miami Open tennis tournament on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 in Miami Gardens, Florida. (Photo: PTI)
When Carlos Alcaraz was a kid growing up in Spain, which considering he’s only 21 wasn’t that long ago, he ran home from school and turned on the TV to watch the French Open.
Long before he prepared to play Alexander Zverev in Sunday’s Paris final, Alcaraz naturally watched many matches involving Rafael Nadal as his compatriot collected a record 14 titles at Roland Garros.
I wanted to put my name on the list of Spanish players who won this tournament. Not just Rafa, said Alcaraz, who then went on to dismiss champions like Juan Carlos Ferrero (who happens to be his coach), Carlos Moya and Albert Costa, calling them legends of our sport who won this tournament.
He might join them. Alcaraz has triumphed on the hard courts of the US Open in 2022 and on the grass courts of Wimbledon in 2023, and now he is one victory away from holding a trophy on the red clay of Court Philippe Chatrier in south-west Paris.
He would be the youngest man to own a major championship in all three areas; As it is, he is the youngest to reach the final on any surface.
Zverev, who hails from Germany, is trying to claim his first Grand Slam title. He was runner-up to Dominic Thiem at the 2020 US Open after taking a two-set lead and losing in five sets.
I’ve said it before and I’m going to say it again: I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t ready to win my first Grand Slam final. I wasn’t mature enough. Maybe I was still too much of a child. I didn’t know what the occasion means. And that’s why I lost, Zverev said, thinking back to what happened in a nearly empty Arthur Ashe Stadium during the COVID-19 pandemic.
I am now 27 years old. So definitely not a child anymore. Getting older already. If not now, then when?
No. No. 3 seed Alcaraz versus No. 4 seed Zverev marks the first French Open final since 2004 without at least one of (and sometimes two of) Nadal, Novak Djokovic or Roger Federer participating.
Alcaraz looks up to the guys collectively known as the Big Three of men’s tennis, who have all completed Grand Slam careers, and they own a total of 66 major titles and want to match them.
I always wanted to be one of the best players in the world. If I want to be one of the best players in the world, I have to be a good player on every surface, like Roger did, Novak, Rafa and (Andy) Murray. The best players in the world had success on every surface, Alcaraz said.
So I consider myself a player who adapts his style very well on any surface, he continued.
I grew up playing on clay, but I feel more comfortable playing on a hard court, for example.
Alcaraz got past No. 2 Jannik Sinner in five sets in the semifinals Friday, and Zverev, a four-set winner against No. 7 Casper Ruud, are both adept on clay.
Zverev begins a 12-match winning streak on Sunday, including a title last month at the Italian Open and a first-round victory against Nadal in Paris.
He is also the only man to reach at least the semi-finals at Roland Garros in the past four years.
Alcaraz became the first man to beat Nadal and Djokovic at the same clay-court event, eliminating them in consecutive matches on his way to the title at the 2022 Madrid Open.
Alcaraz is third and Zverev fourth on the list of most match victories on clay since 2020.
If you are in a Grand Slam final, you deserve to be there, Zverev said. That applies to both of us.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
First print: June 8, 2024 | 9:24 pm IST