Rafael Nadal to face promising Spanish teenager at Madrid Open
It wasn’t too way back that Rafael Nadal was handing Carlos Alcaraz a PlayStation because the boy’s prize at a neighborhood tennis match in Spain.
Now the Spanish nice is about to play towards the promising teenager within the second spherical of the Madrid Open.
The 17-year-old Alcaraz defeated Adrian Mannarino 6-4 6-0 on Monday to arrange the “dream” matchup towards the 20-time grand slam champion.
Alcaraz will face his idol on the Magic Box heart courtroom on Wednesday, his birthday.
“It will be a dream come through to play against Rafa here,” Alcaraz stated.
“I’ve wanted to play against him since I was a kid. There will be no better way than while celebrating my 18th birthday.”
Alcaraz, who’s competing in Madrid on a wild card, turned professional in 2018 and has been thought of by many as Spain’s successor to 34-year-old Nadal. They practiced collectively on the Australian Open, the place Alcaraz reached the second spherical.
He gained the under-12 title in Madrid in 2015, and two years later reached the ultimate within the under-16 occasion. A couple of years in the past, Alcaraz and different youngsters obtained PlayStations from Nadal after competing in a match.
“I’ll try to be as relaxed as possible,” the A hundred and twentieth-ranked Alcaraz stated. “I’ll try to play my game and to keep learning and keep having fun.”
In different early spherical matches, Daniel Evans defeated Jeremy Chardy 7-6 (6) 6-7 (7) 6-2, and Danis Shapovalov acquired previous Dusan Lajovic 6-1 6-3.
Fabio Fognini, who was disqualified from the Barcelona Open due to foul language, defeated Spanish qualifier Carlos Taberner 7-6 (4) 2-6 6-3 to arrange an all-Italian conflict towards Matteo Berrettini within the second spherical.
John Isner defeated Miomir Kecmanovic 6-4 7-6 (6), whereas fellow American Reilly Opelka misplaced to Dominik Koepfer 6-4 6-4. Other US gamers who gained have been Marcos Giron and Tommy Paul.
In the ladies’s draw, top-ranked Ashleigh Barty defeated French Open champion Iga Swiatek 7-5 6-4 in a round-of-16 match, whereas Spaniard Paula Badosa acquired previous Anastasija Sevastova 6-7 (0) 7-6 (3) 6-0.
Petra Kvitova defeated Veronika Kudermetova 6-3 4-6 6-4, whereas eighth-seeded Belinda Bencic superior after Ons Jabeur retired.
