Before last year’s Madrid Masters, Stefanos Tsitsipas was the youngest player to have defeated Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Stefanos knocked out Novak in Toronto 2018 and unseated Rafa a year later in Madrid to complete an arduous task at the age of 20. Carlos Alcaraz took the record from Tsitsipas in style at the Caja Mágica last year, defeating two legends on consecutive days at 19 years and two days! Alcaraz became the fifth player to win over Nadal and Djokovic on back-to-back days and the first to defeat them on clay. The young Spaniard achieved his first victory over Nadal in the quarterfinals, beating his idol 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 in two hours and 28 minutes. Carlos took advantage of the fact that Rafa had not played for six weeks, dominating sets one and three to arrange the clash against Novak Djokovic. The teenager defended six of nine break points and secured four breaks that took him to the final. Alcaraz hit 37 winners and started again from the third set to topple the king of clay and stay in contention for the title. A day later, Carlos beat world number 1 Novak Djokovic 6-7, 7-5, 7-6 in three hours and 35 minutes of an epic battle. The match only registered three service breaks. The young tennis player kept his cool in the closing stages of sets two and three to clinch victory and advance to the title clash in front of his fans. Djokovic came back from 4-2 down in the first set and took command after the opening blow to keep the pressure on the other side. The Serb prevailed in the tie break 7-5, which gave him a great boost going into the second set.
Alcaraz is all set to return to action
While sharing his thoughts on the Monday Match Analysis show, Flink opined that Carlos Alcaraz will have a lot of pressure on him. “It’s always fun when you’re on the way up. That was a sharp climb for him and then suddenly he finds himself in a position to finish the year at No. 1, and he manages to do it. It was more than he could have dreamed off at the start. I am sure he would have hoped for maybe a top 5 in the world which would have been the ceiling but gets to No. 1. Now, anything less than that this year, or anything less than winning another Major it all can start playing with your mind,” Flink stressed. “I think he is a very strong-minded character, very disciplined, determined and very mature but this year is going to be a tricky year, psychologically. Going back to Miami and Madrid and the places where he succeeded and try to defend titles and then trying to see if he can do a little better than the quarters of the French Open, see if he can have a better Wimbledon and finally going back and trying to defend the US Open,” the American sports journalist explained.
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