‘He is a top player already with a fantastic future,’ Rafael Nadal hails Carlos Alcaraz after their monumental clash at Indian Wells

‘He is a top player already with a fantastic future,’ Rafael Nadal hails Carlos Alcaraz after their monumental clash at Indian Wells

Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz

21-time grand slam champion Rafael Nadal continues his dream run at Indian Wells by getting the better of 18-year old Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals. He defeated Alcaraz in three sets 6-4,4-6,6-3 to storm into his 53rd Masters 1000 Final. In doing so, Nadal also increased his winning streak to 20 matches, and hence he is currently 20-0 in 2022.

Nadal had to dig deep in adverse conditions at the Californian desert against an opponent who is in the form of his life and he was quick to express his emotions after the match. “I am super happy to be in the final,” Nadal said in his on-court interview with Paul Annacone. “It means a lot to me, and I’ll just keep going.”

He went on to praise Alcaraz and admitted that the teenage prodigy was the better player during the start of the match. He further analyzed his performance and revealed how tough the conditions were to play especially in the second set.

“I think he started playing amazing. I was playing well at the beginning, it was just so difficult to stop him with his amazing shots. But then I think after [those] first 15 minutes of the match, I can’t say I was under control, because it’s impossible to be under control against a player like him,” Nadal said. “Then I made a couple of mistakes there and then the set [got] complicated,” he said.

“But in the second, the conditions became crazy, honestly. It’s not fun playing [with] this wind. Even if it’s sometimes a challenge, I can enjoy that. But in terms of tennis, it’s okay. In terms of stopping all the time because [of] the net, [that] was not good,” Nadal said. “In the third, I think I played much better. I played more aggressively. It’s true that I saved a couple of balls, but he played some great points too, saving amazing balls.”

‘I was playing against one of the best players in the world’: Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal

Speaking about Alcaraz, Nadal said that he isn’t a young player who is ranked 100th in the world, rather he’s one of the best players on the current tour.

“I took it like another semi-final match. He’s not a young player that is 100 in the world and is coming. He is a top player already, so I treated it like that, playing against one of the best players in the world,” Nadal said.

He went on to say that Alcaraz has a great future and he treated him like any other player. He admitted that this victory was very important for his confidence.

“It doesn’t matter if he’s young or not, he’s a great guy, an amazing player and he has a fantastic future. I treated it like this, just tried to go on court, try my best and accept all the challenges. I am through and it was a very important victory for me,” he said.

Nadal will now face American Taylor Fritz in the final on Sunday in quest of his 37th Masters title at Indian Wells.

Also read: “I remember that, getting his autograph,” Taylor Fritz shares his nostalgic memory of Andy Murray