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      At the French Open, Novak Djokovic Aims for His 21st Slam Win

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      The world No. 1 seemed poised to set the men’s record for major titles. Now, after a crushing loss and a vaccine controversy, Djokovic looks to get back on course at the French Open.Novak Djokovic has been here before, nipping at the heels of major title No. 21.He had a chance at the U.S. Open last summer. Winning the men’s singles final against Daniil Medvedev would have been a signal moment in sports. Djokovic would have burst through the logjam he’d shared with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal: 20 titles in majors, then the high-water mark in men’s tennis.And Djokovic would have become the first male player since Rod Laver in 1969 to achieve a Grand Slam, capturing Wimbledon and the French, Australian and U.S. Open titles in the same year.It wasn’t to be.Then he seemed destined to record his 21st victory in a Grand Slam event at this year’s Australian Open, the major where he has emerged victorious nine times. He makes playing in the Melbourne hothouse look like a stroll through a shady summer garden.But we know what happened instead.Djokovic was detained and then deported after a tense standoff over whether he should be allowed to compete in Australia despite having proudly refused to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.Novak Djokovic walking in Melbourne Airport in January, after his visa to play in the Australian Open was canceled.Loren Elliott/ReutersPoint made and the moment lost by both the Australian government and one of the world’s best-known anti-vaccine athletes.With the French Open underway, Djokovic is, at long last, trying again for his 21st major win. By virtue of his No. 1 ranking, he is the top seed in the men’s draw. “I’m going to Paris with confidence and good feelings about my chances there,” he said before the tournament.He said much the same the last two times he reached for the grail of 21 Grand Slam events. But it was Nadal who notched that historic record first, ahead of Djokovic and Federer, when Nadal stepped back into the vaults of greatness and beat Medvedev at the Australian Open in jaw-dropping fashion.Can Djokovic get out of the stall and tie Nadal? If he doesn’t do it soon he may begin drawing comparisons with an equally talented, complex and perplexing champion — Serena Williams, who remains stuck one major behind Margaret Court’s record mark of 24.Like Williams, who at 40 is not playing on the tour and may be heading toward retirement, Djokovic faces snarling pressure to keep up with his peers. It is not getting any easier. On Sunday, he turned 35. His window is closing — the ability to call on match-to-match consistency narrows with each grinding season.Consider all he has faced this year. Global anger over his determination to steer clear of vaccination. The hangover from the crushing loss in the final of the U.S. Open. The months when he looked like a meager facsimile of his old self on the tennis court.After Australia, he was barred from playing in two big hardcourt tournaments, in Indian Wells and Miami, because the United States wisely required foreign visitors to be vaccinated to enter the country. Then came a stretch of choppy, angst-riddled play, which we had not seen from him in years. There were early-round defeats to the 123rd and 46th players in the world. Before adoring hometown fans, he struggled through the Serbia Open and crumbled in the finals. He fell in Madrid to the 19-year-old Spanish upstart Carlos Alcaraz.Can Djokovic win his 21st at the French Open? There was little hint he would be up to the task until this month in Rome, at the last big tuneup before Roland Garros.In Rome, it was all there again for Djokovic: lithe, deep and consistent returns, a pickpocket’s moxie during the tensest moments. Djokovic did not lose a set all tournament. In the final, where he defeated fourth-ranked Stefanos Tsitsipas, he took the opening stanza, 6-0.Djokovic returned to form, defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas in the Italian Open final two weeks ago.Julian Finney/Getty ImagesHe looked back on Australia and the brutal aftermath in a news conference and spoke of how the experience would not bow him. Djokovic promised to turn the jagged pain of having been barred from play and the pressure he felt from the backlash to his favor. “It will fuel me,” he said, steely eyed, “for the next challenge.”Such a mind-set is as vintage Djokovic as his scythe-like down-the-line backhand.Left unmentioned was how he has been hailed a hero among the anti-vaccine crowd for his refusenik stance, a view that is impossible to fathom when the coronavirus has caused the death of at least six million people across the globe. He has even vowed that if it came between choosing whether to be vaccinated or keep playing professional tennis, he would remain on the sideline.His commitment to that stance is foolish, but his resistance offers a window into what makes Djokovic tick. Enduring stubbornness sets him apart more than his movement, consistency or dart-like accuracy.He is a true believer — on the court and off it — and he has long latched himself to some of the self-help movement’s wildest false claims, everything from telepathy to the notion that loving thoughts can change the molecular structure of water.Now you might think those ideas are pretty ridiculous. I sure do. But for Djokovic, clinging to belief in what may seem impossible has worked in astonishing ways.We’ve seen it countless times on the biggest stages.Remember his great escapes against Federer. The victories after facing two match points against Federer’s serve at the U.S. Open in 2010 and 2011. The marathon final win at Wimbledon in 2019, when he turned Federer away after the grass-court master held yet another pair of match points.Djokovic’s relentless belief in himself helped power some of his greatest victories, as in the 2019 Wimbledon final against Roger Federer, right.Nic Bothma/EPA, via ShutterstockI was there and can still hear the frenzied Centre Court crowd yelling, “Federer! Federer! Federer!” ringing in my ears. But that’s not what Djokovic heard. He said after the match that as the roars rose like a storm for his opponent, he mentally converted the rhythmic chants to something that spurred him on — “Novak! Novak! Novak!”Remember, too, the French Open of 2021, the bruising semifinal win against Nadal, the most recent act in the duo’s 58-match rivalry. The Serb followed that with a comeback from two sets down against Tsitsipas to win the championship.Now the French Open is again underway. Victory at Roland Garros is as intense a journey as exists in sports — especially now, as players deploy a mix of power, touch, bounding topspin and athleticism in ways that not long ago would have been unimaginable.Age and years of leg-churning wear on tour add another layer of difficulty. Look at Nadal, also 35 and currently battling foot and rib injuries severe enough to stir rumors of imminent retirement.These two will again try to fend off a cast of younger stars in Paris. They will have eyes steady on one in particular: Alcaraz, who plays with the limitless élan of a teen and a veteran’s wisdom and strength.All three are in the same half of the draw in Paris, bidding for a spot in the finals. Can Djokovic make it that far and finally win No. 21? I won’t bet against a player so capable of conjuring unshakable magic. More

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      Rafael Nadal Is the French Open’s Man of Mystery

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      He was unbeatable at the start of the year, then could hardly finish a match in the run-up to the French Open because of an injury. Which version of the 13-time champion of this tournament will show up?Rafael Nadal has a chronically injured left foot that sometimes hurts so much he cannot play.A stress fracture in one of his ribs, suffered at Indian Wells in March, cut short his clay-court season and has left him with far less preparation than usual ahead of his favorite tournament, the French Open.His knees are often on the edge of balky. He is two weeks shy of his 36th birthday, an age that, a generation ago, would have effectively stopped him from contending for, much less winning, Grand Slam titles. He limped through the final set of his last match, a three-set loss in the round of 16 at the Italian Open.And yet, as Alexander Zverev, the world’s third-ranked men’s tennis player, watched Nadal practice Thursday morning — because even the best players in the world will stop and watch Nadal hit any ball at any time on the red clay of Roland Garros — Nadal’s vulnerability was not on his mind.“Rafa, at this place,” Zverev began, then paused so he could properly explain what he thought he, his father and his coach had just witnessed, “all of a sudden his forehand is just 20 miles an hour faster. He moves lighter on his feet. There is something about this court that makes him play 30 percent better.”Few would take issue with Zverev’s assessment. Nadal is 105-3 at Roland Garros. He has won 13 singles titles, the first coming half a lifetime ago, in 2005. He is the only player in the field with a 9-foot silver statue on these grounds.“When we talk about favorites, for Roland Garros and clay, Nadal has to be right at the top,” Novak Djokovic, the reigning champion, said Friday.For the first 10 weeks of the year, no one could beat Nadal. He won three titles and 21 consecutive matches (including a walkover) before the young American Taylor Fritz beat him at Indian Wells. But the wild swings of injury-induced inactivity and success have made Nadal as mysterious a presence in the field as he has ever been, and in his mind, hardly the favorite.“For sure not, because the results say that I am not,” he said, before delivering a mysterious qualifier. “But you never know what can happen.”He would not be here, he said, if he did not think he had a chance to win.It has been a long time since Nadal showed up in Paris and this tournament was not his to lose. Nadal’s winning the French Open was long the closest thing to a foregone conclusion in this sport or any other.In October 2020, with the pandemic having prompted the French Tennis Federation to move the tournament to early fall from late spring, Nadal stampeded through the competition without dropping a set. He embarrassed Djokovic, 6-0, 6-2, 7-5, in the final.Nine months later, though, Djokovic got revenge, breaking Nadal’s spirit and his body during an epic four-set semifinal on his way to the championship. Mueller-Weiss Syndrome, the degenerative foot condition that Nadal has had since childhood, prevented him from playing for most of the rest of the year. For months during the fall, Nadal wondered whether he would ever play again.Then the pain became manageable. And after just a few weeks of preparation and a single tournament, Nadal won the Australian Open in January, showing the world once more that counting him out is a terrible idea. But in recent days, the pain has been difficult again, and the top players can sense that the 2022 French Open has a different feel than others in recent memory.“A lot of competition on the men’s side,” said Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, who lost the final to Djokovic last year after winning the first two sets. “It’s something that we haven’t seen for sure in a long time.”Tsitsipas, 23, spoke of the “slightly younger and very hungry” players like himself, who are desperate to begin winning Grand Slams, and of Carlos Alcaraz, the rising and dangerous 19-year-old from Spain. “He seems like he plays tennis just because he enjoys the sport,” Tsitsipas said of the young Spaniard. But he prefaced those comments with a reference to Nadal, someone he jokingly described as having won the French Open “at least 28 times.” That is how large his presence looms on these grounds.Nadal tried to downplay his prowess at Roland Garros on Friday.He has collected dozens of championships on red clay throughout Europe, winning a dozen in Barcelona, 10 in Rome and 11 in Monte Carlo, so 13 at Roland Garros makes sense, sort of, he suggested. (No, it doesn’t. It’s ridiculous.)Also, he said that the results from the last two months mattered more than titles won a long time ago. The rib injury made it difficult for him to sleep, much less swing a racket, especially with the violent torque that he generates on even his routine shots. Others, he said, have played so much more, and better.Then again, Grand Slam tournaments, with their seven, best-of-five-set matches played over two weeks, are long affairs, especially on clay, on which points and matches stretch into attrition territory. The competitions are long enough for a player with a certain familiarity with the territory, who knows better than anyone what it takes to win tennis marathons, whose game is all about punishment, to catch up with those who are better prepared.Then there is the additional motivation that Djokovic said every player gained when he showed up to compete for a Grand Slam title, an opportunity that awakened “so much emotion.”“That is why you cannot underestimate anyone,” he said.It is a rush of adrenaline that can make debilitating, even hobbling, aches and pains magically and mysteriously recede.“Things can change quick,” Nadal said, though neither he nor anyone else can say with any certainty that they will. “Only thing that I can do is try to be ready if that change happens.” More

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      Carlos Alcaraz, at 19, Is a Favorite at the French Open

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      Alcaraz, 19, has arrived in Paris with an unusual level of buzz and momentum for his age.PARIS — When the future No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero was 19, he came to Roland Garros for the 1999 French Open qualifying tournament and lost in the first round.His pupil, Carlos Alcaraz, is on a more accelerated timetable. At 19, Alcaraz has arrived in Paris as the No. 6 seed in the main draw and one of the clear favorites.With his all-action style, Alcaraz, the emotive Spanish teenager, plays as if plugged into some renewable source of energy and already has won four titles this season. He beat Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic back-to-back on red clay in nerve-jangling duels in Madrid that seemed as much a tribute to Alcaraz’s appetite for combat as to his incandescent talent.On Friday, two days before the start of the French Open, a photo of Alcaraz, roaring with his right fist clenched, occupied nearly all the space on the front page of L’Équipe, the leading French sports publication.The word is justifiably out. Now, it is time to learn whether Alcaraz, who is in the top half of a top-heavy men’s draw, can manage the moment and the grind of best-of-five-set matches in just his sixth Grand Slam tournament.Djokovic congratulating Alcaraz at the end of their match at the Madrid Open.Pierre-Philippe Marcou/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images“If everything stays normal, and there is no injury, I think he is absolutely ready for best of five,” Ferrero said in an interview this week. He added: “His character on the court is so big. He loves to go for the big points and for the big moment and is one of the few guys that you can see who is like this.”Since the Big Three — Nadal, Djokovic and Roger Federer — took collective command of the men’s game in the late 2000s, this is the first time that a next-generation player has come into a major men’s tournament with this level of buzz and momentum.“It seems to me, he’s not feeling the pressure, but let’s see when the time comes,” Ferrero said. “I have experience with that. I talk to him a lot. I think his commitment to practice and compete is the same as ever. So, let’s see where the limit is for him. And let’s see if he has no limits.”Ferrero, 42, who won the 2003 French Open and was ranked No. 1 the same year, knows more than most about scaling tennis summits. He has coached Alcaraz since 2018 out of his academy in Villena, Spain, in the stark countryside near Alicante that is long on dust and hilltop castles and short on modern-age distractions.When he is not traveling on tour, Alcaraz, who is from El Palmar, a suburb of Murcia, boards at the academy on weekdays before making the hourlong drive to spend weekends with his family.“Here we are really tranquilo,” or calm, Alcaraz said in a recent interview in Villena. “Here it’s tennis, tennis and more tennis. The town is five minutes away by car, but in reality it’s farther than that.”Alcaraz serving to Djokovic.Gabriel Bouys/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesFerrero has been well aware of Alcaraz’s potential since he first saw him in a low-level professional tournament in Murcia at age 14. Ferrero has taken a considered and caring approach to developing Alcaraz’s game. They are clearly close, which showed during the Miami Open in March when Ferrero surprised Alcaraz before the final after traveling from Spain following his father’s funeral.In training, the focus is on accentuating Alcaraz’s varied game: He spends a great deal of time at the net and in transition, not just at the baseline. In terms of hours on court, the goal is quality over quantity, which preserves Alcaraz’s body for the long run while emphasizing intensity.“The way you practice will affect the way you play,” Alcaraz said. “If you don’t train every ball with that intensity and seriousness, how are you going to know how to do it in a match?”Ferrero tries to draw on his own experience and mistakes. He soared to the top but peaked early at age 23, before falling back because of injuries and the rise of Federer and Nadal. After winning the French Open in 2003, he never advanced past the third round there before retiring in 2012.Ferrero sometimes did not heed his body’s signals and overplayed, which factored into Alcaraz’s decision to withdraw from the Italian Open earlier this month after winning back-to-back tournaments on clay in Barcelona and Madrid. The goal was to give Alcaraz time to recover from the sprained right ankle and blister on his foot that surfaced in Madrid but also to give him a break from the commotion and inevitable French Open questions before Paris.“Let’s just say that he wanted to go to Rome, but let’s just say also that he was thinking of the future, of what was best for him to arrive at Roland Garros at 100 percent,” Ferrero said.After winning in Madrid, Alcaraz took three days off and returned home to El Palmar, where he beamed and brandished the Madrid trophy on the balcony of his family’s apartment with his parents behind him and a large crowd of fans gathered below, including a group of drummers.One can only imagine the din in El Palmar if Alcaraz were to prevail in Paris.Ferrero said they did unusually long training sessions in Villena — up to three hours — to prepare for best-of-five-set matches. On Tuesday, Alcaraz had one of his regular sessions at the academy with a Spanish performance psychologist, Isabel Balaguer.“A lot of players get lost on the way trying to manage everything, and I think psychologists can help a lot to keep them on a good track,” Ferrero said. “It helps with establishing good routines on and off the court. Carlos does not do a lot of visualization. They work in another way, talking about the things that have happened to him, how to manage everything, how to stay calm and how to stay with the feet on the ground.”“Tennis is a team sport all the time except when you are on the court,” Alcaraz said. Denis Doyle/Getty ImagesThat could be nearly as challenging as outlasting Djokovic from the baseline, but Alcaraz has emphasized that big success does not have to lead to a big head.“Tennis is a team sport all the time except when you are on the court,” he said.This moment in Paris stirs memories of Nadal, the ultimate Spanish prodigy, who arrived at Roland Garros on a roll in 2005 as the No. 4 seed and won his first Grand Slam title at 19. Nadal’s body of work was superior at that early stage. He had helped Spain win the Davis Cup in 2004 and won five tournaments on clay in 2005 before arriving in Paris. That was Nadal’s first French Open but only because he missed the tournament in 2003 and 2004 with injuries.Alcaraz was only 2 years old at that point and not yet pounding balls obsessively in El Palmar against the hitting wall at his family’s sports club. But Alcaraz does remember the 2013 French Open semifinal, when Djokovic was up a break of serve on Nadal in the fifth set only to lose his edge and the match after dropping a point for touching the net after tapping a seemingly routine overhead winner.“I watched plenty of tennis, but that’s my first really clear memory of a match,” Alcaraz said.Nine years later, he looks like the biggest threat to Nadal and Djokovic at Roland Garros, where all three of them are in the top half of the draw. Alcaraz is clearly at home on hardcourts — he won the Miami Open this year — but grew up training almost exclusively on clay.Alcaraz may be the biggest threat to Nadal and Djokovic at Roland Garros this year.Denis Doyle/Getty ImagesHe already has played in the French Open: He lost in the third round last year to Jan-Lennard Struff, a veteran German. But Alcaraz’s game, strength and confidence have grown considerably since then.“I see Carlos as a blend of the Big Three,” said Craig O’Shannessy, an Australian tennis-analytics specialist who was part of Struff’s team last year. “You’ve got the mentality and tenacity of Nadal and the exquisite timing and willingness to come to the net of Federer. And then you have the aggressive baseline play like Djokovic: the power and flexibility to hit big off both sides from the backcourt.”For now, Alcaraz says his goal is to win one of the three Grand Slam tournaments remaining in 2022. He was beaten in the third round of this year’s Australian Open in a fifth-set tiebreaker by Matteo Berrettini, double faulting on match point.“I think it was the right time to lose a match,” Ferrero said. “Maybe he could have won and gone on to the semifinals like Berrettini, but maybe that would not have been useful as a loss.”Four months later, after four titles, coach and pupil sound less inclined to see the bright side of defeat. Ferrero already has gone all the way in Paris, and as Alcaraz spoke at the academy in Villena, he did so in a room filled with Ferrero’s trophies, including the smaller model of the Coupe des Mousquetaires presented to the men’s champion at Roland Garros.“They should have given him the big one,” Alcaraz said with a chuckle. “I was a bit young to remember some of these, but this place is full of memories and important trophies to Juan Carlos. It’s obviously an inspiration. I hope one day I can match it or go past it.” More

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      Tennis Tours Penalize Wimbledon Over Ban on Russian Players

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      PARIS — The men’s and women’s tennis tours responded to Wimbledon’s ban on Russian and Belarusian players on Friday by stripping the event of ranking points this year, the most significant rebuke to date of efforts by global sports organizations to ostracize individual Russian athletes as punishment for their country’s invasion of Ukraine.It is a move without precedent in tennis, and without the points, Wimbledon, the oldest of the four Grand Slam tournaments, will technically be an exhibition event, bringing no ranking boost to those who excel on its pristine lawns this year.“The ability for players of any nationality to enter tournaments based on merit, and without discrimination is fundamental to our Tour,” the ATP said in a statement, saying that the ban undermined its ranking system.The International Tennis Federation, a governing body that operates separately from the tours, also announced it would remove ranking points from the junior and wheelchair events at Wimbledon this year.Though Wimbledon, for now, is the only one of the four major tournaments to ban Russians and Belarusians, the power play by the tours could lead to countermeasures, including the possibility of Grand Slam events considering an alternative ranking system or aligning to make more decisions independently of the tours.Organizers of Wimbledon, a grass-court tournament and British cultural institution that begins on June 27, announced the ban on Russian and Belarusian players last month in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which was undertaken with the support of Belarus. Other British grass-court tournaments that are staged in June, including the Wimbledon prep events at Eastbourne and at Queen’s Club in London, have announced similar bans.So have sports as diverse as soccer, auto racing, track and field and ice hockey. Russia has been stripped of the hosting rights to events and has seen its teams ejected from major competitions like soccer’s World Cup. But only a few sports, notably figure skating and track and field, have barred individual athletes from Russia and Belarus from competing.Both tours condemned the invasion of Ukraine but argued that individual athletes should not be prevented from competing, in the words of WTA chief executive Steve Simon, “solely because of their nationalities or the decisions made by the governments of their countries.”But Sergiy Stakohvsky, a recently retired Ukrainian men’s player now in the Ukrainian military, expressed bitterness at the decision, calling it a “shameful day in tennis” in a post on Twitter.Standing by its ban, Wimbledon expressed “deep disappointment” and said stripping points was “disproportionate” in light of the pressure it was under from the British government.The ATP’s and WTA’s move was made after extensive internal debate and despite considerable pushback from players. A sizable group of men’s and women’s players was gathering support for a petition in favor of retaining Wimbledon’s points before the tours made their announcements. But removing the points is expected to have little effect on the tournament’s bottom line.The world’s top players who are not from Russia and Belarus are still expected to participate. Novak Djokovic, the world No. 1 men’s player from Serbia and a six-time Wimbledon champion, made it clear on Sunday after winning the Italian Open in Rome that he would not support skipping the event in protest even if he remained against the decision to bar the Russian and Belarusian players.“A boycott is a very aggressive thing,” Djokovic said. “There are much better solutions.”This year’s Wimbledon champions will still play in front of big crowds, lift the same trophies hoisted by their predecessors and have their names inscribed on the honor roll posted inside the clubhouse of the All England Club. They will be considered Grand Slam champions although it remains unclear whether Wimbledon will maintain prize money at its usual levels.Stripping points will have consequences on the sport’s pecking order. Daniil Medvedev, a Russian ranked No. 2, is now in excellent position to displace No. 1 Novak Djokovic after Wimbledon because Djokovic’s 2,000 points for winning Wimbledon last year will come off his total without being replaced. Medvedev, who reached the round of 16 at Wimbledon last year, will only lose 180 points.The leadership of the ATP, including its player council, which includes stars like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, ultimately decided that it was important to dissuade tournaments from barring players — now or in the future — based on political concerns.“How do you draw the line of when you ban players and when you don’t?” Yevgeny Kafelnikov, a Russian and a former No. 1 singles player, said in a telephone interview from Moscow.Unlike Wimbledon, the lead-in events in Britain have retained their ranking points despite being formally part of the tours. Wimbledon, as a Grand Slam event, operates independently but does have agreements with the tours on many levels. But the ATP and WTA chose not to strip points from the British lead-in events because other European tournaments were still open to Russian and Belarusian players during those three weeks of the season. The WTA did announce that it was putting the British tour events in Nottingham, Birmingham and Eastbourne on probation because of the ban.Russia-Ukraine War: Key DevelopmentsCard 1 of 4Russia’s punishment of Finland. More

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      Carlos Alcaraz, Just 19, Has His Eye on a Grand Slam Title

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      He’s the youngest tennis player to crack the top 10 since Rafael Nadal — but he’s not letting the pressure get to him.ROQUEBRUNE-CAP-MARTIN, France — Carlos Alcaraz of Spain was walking to a series of television interviews at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters here last month when something stopped him in his tracks: A Maserati MC20 on display.Cars have become a passion for Alcaraz, even though he didn’t obtain his driver’s license until this year, well past his 18th birthday. The 15-minute test, Alcaraz admitted, was “really, really tough. I was really nervous, and I was sweating.”When it comes to choosing his own dream car, Alcaraz said he would shun a sports car for a more practical sport-utility vehicle, even if it were the $200,000 Lamborghini Urus. With more than $5 million in career prize money, as well as income from endorsement deals, he can have whatever car he wants.On the court, Alcaraz revs his own engine by bellowing and pumping his fists after hard-won points. He can quickly cover the court both side to side and from behind the baseline to the net. His shot selection is staggering, with drop shots hit so deftly that opponents are left to stare in disgust.A year ago, Alcaraz hovered on the verge of the top 100 men’s players in the world and was forced to play three qualifying matches to reach the main draw of the French Open. This year, he enters the event with a career-high No. 6 ranking after winning four ATP titles in the last four months.With his win in Barcelona on April 24, Alcaraz became the youngest player to crack the world’s top 10 since his countryman and idol, Rafael Nadal, did so by winning the same tournament, on the same day, in 2005. Alcaraz followed it up by winning his second ATP Masters 1000 in Madrid — his first was the Miami Open in April — becoming the first player to beat Nadal and Novak Djokovic back to back on clay. Heading into the French Open, Alcaraz has a 28-3 record on the season.While focused and animated on court, Alcaraz, who turned 19 on May 5, is poised beyond his years. He wasn’t even rattled when his luggage went missing when he returned home to Spain from Miami. In Monte Carlo, he moved across a line of television cameras, offering similar quotes to each. And he never stopped smiling.The following conversation has been edited and condensed.You’ve been compared to Nadal, Roger Federer, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. Which means the most to you?Obviously Rafa. He’s Spanish, I grew up watching his matches, and he was my idol since I was a kid.We’ve seen others described as the new Nadal who couldn’t handle the pressure. How are you holding up?Everybody knows who is Rafa and what he has achieved in tennis, so I’m trying not to think that I’m the new Nadal. I’m just trying to be Carlos Alcaraz. If I make pressure on myself trying to be Rafa Nadal and win 21 Grand Slams, it’s really tough, and in the end it’s dangerous to myself.Alcaraz won his second ATP Masters 1000 in Madrid, becoming the first player to beat Nadal and Novak Djokovic back to back on clay. Heading into the French Open, Alcaraz has a 28-3 record on the season.Bernat Armangue/Associated PressLast year you said your goal was to make the top 20, and you’ve already surpassed that. What’s next?At the end of last year I said my goal was to win an ATP 500, then a Masters 1000. I did both of those, so now I’m trying to win a Grand Slam and qualify for the ATP Finals.Your coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, told you not to be in a rush to get to the top. You haven’t listened. What is he telling you now?He’s telling me to stay calm, to do the things that I already do, to follow my way. Don’t think about this tournament or the top five. Just stay level and be the same person that I’ve been this past year.You and Iga Swiatek, the new women’s No. 1, have both had great success at a young age. Have you talked to her?Not really. I wrote to congratulate her after she won the Miami Open, but she didn’t respond. I don’t have her number, so I wrote on Instagram. I think she received a million messages.I don’t know if you’ve seen “King Richard,” the biopic about the father of Venus and Serena Williams, but who would you like to play you in the Carlos Alcaraz story?I haven’t seen the movie yet, but [Leonardo] DiCaprio. More

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      What the Italian Open Is Foretelling About the French Open

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      Though at opposite poles of their careers, the top singles players, Iga Swiatek and Novak Djokovic, both cruised to titles in Rome and are looking strong heading into Paris.ROME — We will soon find out how much of what happened Sunday at the Italian Open was foreshadowing.The main draw for the French Open, the only Grand Slam tournament played on clay courts, begins in a week. But Iga Swiatek’s and Novak Djokovic’s decisive victories in Rome certainly solidified two key themes heading into Paris.Swiatek continues to look irresistible, and Djokovic now looks fully revitalized.Both are ranked No. 1 in singles and playing like it. Neither dropped a set on the way to their Italian Open titles, and both polished off their runs convincingly against top-10 players in Sunday’s finals. Swiatek defeated Ons Jabeur, 6-2, 6-2, to stop Jabeur’s 11-match winning streak and extend her own to 28. Djokovic followed her lead, defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas, 6-0, 7-6 (5).Swiatek and Djokovic are at opposite poles of their careers.Swiatek, 20, is just now harnessing the full force of her hard-charging power game, grasping that she can be not only a serial champion but also an intimidator as she crowds the opposition with her heavy-topspin forehand and acrobatic, tight-to-the-baseline defense.Djokovic, who will turn 35 on the opening day of Roland Garros, established himself years ago as one of the game’s greatest players. He is the oldest man to win the Italian Open in singles in the Open era: slightly older than his longtime rival Rafael Nadal was when he beat Djokovic to win the title at 34 last year.Djokovic has endured long enough that he was not the only Djokovic playing for a title on Sunday. While he was prevailing in Rome, his 7-year-old son, Stefan, was winning the title at his debut tournament at a club in the Serbian capital of Belgrade.“I just received that news: a sunshine double today,” Djokovic said with one of his biggest smiles of the week.I mentioned to Djokovic that it has been said that the only thing more mentally challenging than being a tennis player is being a tennis parent.“Not a single day have I told him you have to do this; it’s really purely his own desire to step on the court,” Djokovic said. “He’s really in love with the sport. Last night, when I spoke to him, he was up till late. He was showing me forehand and backhands, how he’s going to move tomorrow, kind of shadowing, playing shadow tennis without a racket. It was so funny to see that. I used to do that when I was a kid. I could see the joy in him, the pure emotion and love for the game.”Djokovic, like his career-long reference points Nadal and Roger Federer, has underscored his passion with long-running excellence and by persistently ignoring the hints that his peak years might be behind him.For Djokovic, this has been a season and a challenge like no other: His decision to remain unvaccinated against the coronavirus led to a standoff with Australian authorities that ended with his deportation on the eve of this year’s Australian Open, and it kept him out of the Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells, Calif., and Miami Gardens, Fla., in March.But with the health protocols now relaxed in Europe, Djokovic returned to regular action on clay last month. Though he struggled in his initial matches with his timing and his endurance, he has slowly but convincingly resumed hitting his targets, and he has gathered momentum just in time for Roland Garros.“I always try to use these kinds of situations and adversity in my favor to fuel me for the next challenge,” he said of Australia. “As much as I’ve felt pressure in my life and my career, that was something really on a whole different level. But I feel it’s already behind me. I feel great on the court. Mentally as well, I’m fresh. I’m sharp.”Against Tsitsipas, the hirsute Greek star who pushed Djokovic to five sets before losing last year’s French Open final, Djokovic controlled most of the baseline rallies with as much patience as panache. When Tsitsipas failed to serve out the second set, Djokovic proved the more reliable force in the tiebreaker, perfectly content, it seemed, to wait for Tsitsipas to crack.“To some extent, it’s a relief because after everything that happened at the beginning of the year, it was important for me to win a big title,” Djokovic said.Stefanos Tsitsipas, who lost to Novak Djokovic in the final in Rome, considered Djokovic a favorite at Roland Garros.Andreas Solaro/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesIt might have been even more reassuring if his title had come against a full-strength field. But Carlos Alcaraz, the 19-year-old from Spain who has been the revelation of the season, chose to rest and skip the Italian Open after beating Nadal and Djokovic to win the title in Madrid. Nadal, the greatest clay-court player in history, lost in the quarterfinals, limping and wincing in the final set of his defeat against Denis Shapovalov of Canada as he struggled anew with the chronic pain in his left foot that threatened his career in his teens and imperils it again now at age 35.Nadal has won the French Open a mind-boggling 13 times; Djokovic a more terrestrial two. But as counterintuitive as it is to count Nadal out in Paris, it seems right to bump him down the list of favorites this year, all the more because he might not even compete.“Right now, Carlos Alcaraz or Novak Djokovic,” said Tsitsipas, who lost to both men this month. “They both play great, great tennis. I would put them as favorites.”It is tempting to lean toward Djokovic considering that Alcaraz has so little experience in the best-of-five-set format and no experience in managing the stress that can come with being placed on a Grand Slam shortlist. But he held up astoundingly well in Madrid despite all the pressure from Djokovic’s groundstrokes and timely first serves down the stretch.Alcaraz is undoubtedly special. The question is just how special, which seems a fine line of inquiry for Swiatek, as well. She was on a roll even before Ashleigh Barty retired suddenly in March while holding the No. 1 ranking. But Swiatek has filled the role with true swagger, solving all manner of riddles by lopsided margins.Since her winning streak began in February, she has lost just five sets and came genuinely close to losing a set only once in Rome, prevailing over the 2019 U.S. Open champion Bianca Andreescu in a first-set tiebreaker in the quarterfinals before closing her out, 6-0.Jabeur, a tactic-shuffling Tunisian, won the title in Madrid on clay this month in Swiatek’s absence. But Sunday represented a big step up as Swiatek not only hunted down most of Jabeur’s trademark drop shots but also dealt firmly with most of Jabeur’s full-force bolts into the corners.There was not much genuine danger, but when it surfaced Swiatek was prepared. Up, 4-2, in the second set but down, 0-40, on her serve, Swiatek saved three break points with winners, and then saved a fourth with a backhand drop volley to cap a full-court exchange.She was soon sobbing on the clay behind the baseline after securing her fifth straight title. Clearly, winning is more taxing than Swiatek is making it look, but after wiping away the tears, she was back to grinning in the Roman sunshine and holding up yet another trophy to go with those won in Doha, Qatar; Indian Wells; Miami Gardens, and Stuttgart, Germany.“Today, I’m going to celebrate with a lot of tiramisù, no regrets,” she said, suddenly much more relatable than when she was pounding the opposition into clay dust.It will come as no surprise if another sweet finish awaits in Paris. More

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      Rafael Nadal Falls Apart on Clay, Just in Time for the French Open

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      Nadal, playing in pain in a loss to Denis Shapovalov at the Italian Open, came away downbeat and pensive with the year’s second Grand Slam event less than two weeks away.ROME — Quick and dominant in the first set against Denis Shapovalov, Rafael Nadal was quite the opposite down the stretch at the Italian Open on Thursday night.Late to the ball. Limping between points. Grimacing and wincing even on changeovers. His distress was so visible as the double faults and unforced errors piled up late in the final set that even the Canadian fans sitting high in the center court stands were offering up sympathetic applause for Nadal as their compatriot Shapovalov put the final touches on his victory, 1-6, 7-5, 6-2, in the round of 16.Shapovalov, an elastic and explosive left-hander ranked No. 16, has the tools to trouble even a healthy Nadal. He beat him in their first match in 2017 when Shapovalov was still a teenager, and should have beaten him in last year’s round of 16 at the Italian Open when he failed to convert two match points. He also pushed Nadal to five sets at this year’s Australian Open.But this was far from a healthy Nadal, with his chronic left foot problem, known as Müller-Weiss disease, resurfacing on his favorite surface. With the French Open looming, his mood in the aftermath was as downbeat and pensive as I can recall in nearly 20 years of following his career.“I imagine there will come a time when my head will say ‘Enough,’” Nadal, a 10-time Italian Open champion, said in Spanish, pursing his lips and shaking his head. “Pain takes away your happiness, not only in tennis but in life. And my problem is that many days I live with too much pain.”Nadal said he also had to live with taking “a ton of anti-inflammatories daily to give myself the ability to train.”“That is my reality,” he said. “And there have been many days, like today, when the moment comes that I can’t do it.”Nadal struggling in the third set against Shapovalov.Fabio Frustaci/EPA, via ShutterstockHe finished with 34 unforced errors and just 13 winners on Thursday, and the question now is whether the most successful clay-courter in history will even be able to play at the French Open, the Grand Slam tournament he has won a record 13 times.“I’m going to keep dreaming about that goal,” Nadal said of the tournament. “The negative thing is today it’s not possible to play for me, but maybe in two days things are better. That’s the thing with what I have on my foot.”The French Open will begin in nine days on May 22, although Nadal might not have to play until May 24 because the French Open, which starts on a Sunday, stages its first round over three days.Though Nadal, who will turn 36 next month, has often shown astonishing fighting spirit and recuperative powers, this will be a challenge like no other for him in Paris in the springtime.“Definitely tough to see him in pain there at the end; I never want to see that, especially with a great legend like Rafa,” said Shapovalov, who still had to produce bold tennis and big serves to win on Thursday. “Hopefully he’s OK. He brings so much to our sport. Hopefully he’s fit and ready to go for the French.”The only time Nadal has triumphed at Roland Garros without winning a clay-court tournament earlier in the year was in 2020, the pandemic-shortened season when the start of the French Open was moved to October and nearly the entire clay-court season was canceled.This year, the schedule has been back to normal but not for Nadal. After a torrid start to the season, with 20 straight victories and a record 21st Grand Slam singles title at the Australian Open, his clay-court campaign was delayed by a stress fracture in his ribs that kept him from competing or practicing normally for six weeks.He returned for the Madrid Open this month and was upset by the 19-year-old Spanish sensation Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinals and has now experienced his earliest defeat at the Italian Open since 2008, when Juan Carlos Ferrero, a former No. 1 who is now Alcaraz’s coach, surprised Nadal in the second round.Nadal went on to win the 2008 French Open anyway, overwhelming his archrival Roger Federer in the final, but Nadal had already won the titles in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Hamburg that year.This season, he is short on matches and victories on clay while established threats like Novak Djokovic and Stefanos Tsitsipas, and new ones like Alcaraz, have established firmer footing.Shapovalov, left, chatting with Nadal at the end of their match. “Definitely tough to see him in pain there at the end,” Shapovalov said.Alessandra Tarantino/Associated Press“Ultimately even the greatest players can’t beat Father Time,” said Brad Stine, the veteran American coach now working with Tommy Paul. “It’s getting to that point for Rafa. What he did in Australia was beyond exceptional, but I think we have been seeing the collateral damage of his great start to the season. If healthy, he is still a favorite week in and week out, but that if is a big one. ‘If the body breaks down’ is not included in Kipling’s poem.”That is a reference to “If,” an excerpt from which is posted at the players’ entrance to Wimbledon’s Centre Court.It is difficult after 15 years of watching Nadal nearly always prevail over adversity and the opposition at Roland Garros to imagine that he truly won’t find a way to pose a challenge.“I will fight for it,” he said grimly. “I will continue to believe during this week and a half.”What is clear is that, for a change, he should not be the favorite. “No way,” said Mark Petchey, the veteran coach and analyst. “Lots of co-favorites and players with genuine chances to win.”His longer list includes the defending champion, Djokovic; last year’s other finalist, Tsitsipas; Alcaraz; Alexander Zverev; Casper Ruud; and the young Italian Jannik Sinner.Nadal, since losing to Djokovic in a four-set semifinal in Paris last June, has played just five matches on clay, losing two of them.Watching him struggle, then eventually hobble on Thursday, was a reminder that nothing is eternal, not even Nadal on the surface that he has made his own. 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      The Future of Tennis, Carlos Alcaraz, Has Arrived

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      The 18-year-old Spaniard recently aced two significant American tournaments, reaching the semifinals at Indian Wells and winning the Miami Open.MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — In a decade or so, after Carlos Alcaraz has piled up the Grand Slam tournament trophies, a four-week stretch in early 2022 may stand out as the time he took over tennis.Over the last month, in tennis’ annual first-quarter pilgrimage to the United States, Alcaraz, 18, of Spain, ceased to be an up-and-comer.At the two most significant American tennis tournaments other than the U.S. Open, the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., and the Miami Open, he made clear that he is not the future; he is the now. With each round this weekend in Florida, the gasps at his cracking forehands and the chants of “Vamonos” and “Let’s go, Carlos” echoed more loudly at a stadium displaying plenty of Spanish flags.On Sunday, Alcaraz overcame early jitters to beat Casper Ruud of Norway, 7-5, 6-4, and captured his first Masters 1000 tournament title — the level just below the Grand Slam events.Ruud, known until lately as a clay-court specialist, came out slugging, breaking Alcaraz’s serve in the first game of the match. But with each game, Alcaraz seemed more comfortable and applied more pressure, especially when Ruud was serving. Ultimately, Ruud, 23, fell to a player who was more athletic, more creative and more talented, and who is somehow able to grind with anyone, even as a teenager.“You’re such a good player already,” Ruud told his opponent when it was over.Alcaraz collapsed onto his back when a final slicing volley sealed the victory. He grabbed his head in disbelief, though he might have been the only doubter in the stadium. Soon, he was embracing his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, and his father, also named Carlos.Ferrero, who calls himself Alcaraz’s “invisible whip,” was in tears. He arrived Saturday, after his father died. But he and Alcaraz’s father wanted to be here to witness the culmination of a staggering month. Their prodigy had tantalized tennis fans on the West Coast, where he tore apart seasoned veterans like Gaël Monfils of France and Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain. In the semifinals, he nearly toppled the player he is compared to most often, Rafael Nadal, the 21-time Grand Slam tournament champion who is also from Spain. He then ran the table in Florida.“I am not afraid to say I want to win a Grand Slam,” said Alcaraz, who said he received a congratulatory call from King Felipe VI of Spain after the win. “I know it is going to be really hard, but I am not afraid to say it.”Alcaraz signed autographs after beating Ruud.Wilfredo Lee/Associated PressNo one would dare predict that there are not many more trophies in Alcaraz’s future. In Indian Wells, Nadal could barely pay attention during a news conference as Alcaraz’s match played on a television behind him and he anticipated an approaching showdown. Someone pointed out that Alcaraz was down an early service break to the reigning champion, Cameron Norrie of Britain.Nadal smiled. “Many games remain,” he said. Alcaraz won in straight sets.Now, depending how he does at the clay-court tournaments in Europe ahead of the French Open, Alcaraz could arrive at Roland Garros as a favorite.The rise of Alcaraz has been on the horizon for years. There was buzz that another version of Nadal was evolving under the guidance of Ferrero, a former No. 1-ranked singles player, at his academy in Alicante, Spain. Alcaraz made his debut in a Grand Slam event at 17 at the 2021 Australian Open, where he won his first match. He had yet to crack the top 100 when he played here last year. By September, he was a U.S. Open quarterfinalist.But this era, however brief it was going to be, was supposed to belong to the so-called Next Gen threesome of Daniil Medvedev of Russia, Alexander Zverev of Germany and Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, all in their early or mid-20s and primed to claim the sport from the aging Big Three of Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.Other than Medvedev’s triumph at the 2021 U.S. Open, that group is still looking for the most important championships. With Djokovic prohibited from playing most tournaments after his refusal to be vaccinated against Covid-19, Medvedev captured the No. 1 ranking in late February, but lost it after an early loss at Indian Wells. Medvedev, Zverev and Tsitsipas have won zero titles through the first quarter of the year.As the tour moves to Europe’s red clay, Medvedev’s worst surface and possibly Alcaraz’s strongest, Medvedev is in danger of becoming an answer to a trivia question about players who held the top ranking for the briefest periods. Alcaraz’s skill and power may be too much to hold off for much longer.Oddly, as hard as Alcaraz hits the ball — so hard that Tsitsipas said last September that it took him a full set to get used to his pace — his most devastating play may be his drop shot. Just as Ruud — or Monfils, Bautista Agut or any opponent — was dug in and battling, there came yet another drop shot, falling like a feather.“It’s crazy how good he plays,” said the 6-foot-5 Hubert Hurkacz, a 25-year-old from Poland who was the reigning champion at the Miami Open.This was about an hour after Alcaraz had outdueled Hurkacz in two tiebreakers in their semifinal Friday night. “Incredible, how he plays, how he competes,” Hurkacz said.The win over Hurkacz came 24 hours after Alcaraz had outlasted Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia, despite losing the first set and being down by 5-3 in a tiebreaker, this one in the third set. Alcaraz stormed back and sealed the match by pushing one last winner down the line. Kecmanovic, a sweat-soaked mess after being run ragged for nearly two and half hours, gazed upward as though Alcaraz had just swindled him out of his per diem.Alcaraz is developing a reputation for wearing down opponents. Midway through the second set on Sunday, the ending seeming inevitable, a tiring and cramping Ruud had to call for a trainer, and spent several minutes being stretched out.Ferrero said the victory would help Alcaraz grow not just as a tennis player but also as a person.“I think it is going to happen many times,” said Ferrero, who added that Alcaraz was not even at the halfway point of his development. “He is growing up so fast.”Now, he said, comes a day or two of golf, of relaxation, and then more work. And then, more likely than not, more trophies. More