Nikolay Davydenko opines why Carlos Alcaraz and other younger players are weak as compared to Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal
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Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz - FirstSportz
It has been an amazing 2022 season for Carlos Alcaraz as he went on to win his maiden Grand Slam title at the US Open and also won four ATP singles titles throughout the year. He also became the youngest player to be the year-end No 1 in the world. Nikolay Davydenko, the retired tennis player compared the youngest World No 1 to the likes of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
Alcaraz had an abrupt ending to his 2022 campaign as he had to withdraw his name from the Year-end Championship following an abdominal injury that kept him out for some weeks. His most remarkable performances have been at the Madrid Open, where he defeated the Top 3 seeds to win his sixth ATP title. He is considered to be one of the next gen-stars who has cemented his place among the elites.
The former Russian player heaped praises for the Big 2 and revealed that they still remain to be the dominant forces. He admitted that though Alcaraz has managed to achieve a lot in 2022, he still needs to up his game when he plays against Nadal or Djokovic. He claimed that the older generation of players keeps surprising him whereas called Alcaraz and other younger players as weak in terms of their physicality and understanding of the game.
Nikolay Davydenko said during an interview that “Let’s start with Djokovic, who hasn’t been to Australia or the US Open. I don’t know what to say here. Maybe if he had played everything, he would have stood first in general. Nadal surprises me too. It comes to Roland Garros and that’s it, he has form.“
Continuing his train of thought, he added that “It turns out that young players are so weak. Because I also played with [Nadal], and then he won everything. And now there are young, physically strong, drummers – and he still beats them. It turns out that the tennis of that generation is still stronger than the current one.“
Carlos Alcaraz will be the top-seed player at the 2023 Australian Open
He was clearly the best player this season on the ATP Tour. He started the year by winning his maiden ATP 500 title and by the time he finished the season; he was a multiple Masters champion, a Grand Slam champion, and the youngest World No.1 at just 19 years of age. This was clearly one of the best seasons by a teenager in recent years and one can’t help but compare him to his idol, Rafael Nadal.
After having a successful season in 2022 with highs and lows, Carlos Alcaraz is featured in the entry list of the 2023 Australian Open as the top-seed player. He is followed by another Spaniard on the list. The 19-year-old will be aiming to have a deep run at the first Grand Slam event of the year since, during last year’s championship, he failed to go past the third round.
Carlos Alcaraz is scheduled to play an exhibition match with Rafael Nadal called the ‘Slam: Nadal vs. Alcaraz’ which will take place inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. He is also the only player out of the Big 4 to be listed as the year-end World No 1 since 2004.
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Prateek Pradhan
(601 Articles Published)