What Rafa Nadal said about Carlos Alcaraz when the young tennis player was first coming up in the sport rings true more than four years later after the Spaniard secured the fifth major of his career at the French Open earlier in the summer, and remains on course to challenge at Wimbledon.
Alcaraz has showcased elite abilities in tennis’s top tournaments since 2022, when he won his maiden major at the US Open on a hard surface. Since then, he’s won twice on grass at Wimbledon, and twice on clay, too.
Nadal first played Alcaraz in an ATP event in 2021 at the Madrid Open. Though Nadal won in straight sets with scores of 6-1 and 6-2, the veteran was left impressed by the young whipper-snapper’s potential. And those words seem more relevant than ever, as Alcaraz makes his march toward a sixth major championship.
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What Rafa Nadal Once Said About Carlos Alcaraz
Nadal has long been impressed by Spain’s top player
Nadal told reporters following the second round win over Alcaraz that “somebody at his age” doing the things he was doing, was “something special. At the same time, he’s humble enough to keep working. He’s passionate about the game.”
“I really believe that he’s a complete player.”
Nadal continued: “He’s brave, he’s able to go to the net very often. Great forehand, great backhand.”
On the improvements he’d like to see from the phenom, he said: “Of course needs to improve a little bit the serve, but he’s just 18 today, so he has plenty of time. As I said, he’s humble enough and he’s a hard worker, so I don’t have a doubt that he will do it, no? His movement is great. He has plenty of ingredients to become a great player. That’s the main thing.”
The one thing that may hinder Alcaraz’s success was not himself, Nadal said, but the “quality of the big opponents” in front of him. “Nothing is easy in this life. Be one of the best players in the world and fight for the most important titles is something very difficult, but I really believe that he’s one of the guys that he can do it.”
Alcaraz returns to the court on Tuesday, the 8th of July, for his quarterfinal against the British player Cameron Norrie. The semifinals for the men’s singles tournament takes place Friday, before Sunday’s final.
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