“Rafa is another dimension” Alex Corretja discourages fans from comparing Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz

18-year old Carlos Alcaraz has already joined 21-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal as the flagbearer of Spanish tennis with his achievements since 2021. Alcaraz was not a regular on the Tour till the Clay season last season but has made rapid growth to have already broken into the Top-10 of the rankings this year being ranked World no. 9 at the moment.

Alcaraz was ranked 120th when he last played at the Madrid Masters in 2021. This year he will be seeded and one of the heavy favourites for the title. A meteoric rise always excites the fans and tennis world especially when it is a young gun but former World No. 2 and two-time French Open runner-up (in 1998, 2001) Alex Corretja has cautioned the tennis world to not compare Alcaraz with Nadal.

Few of Nadal’s records set by a teen Rafa have been either matched or bettered by Alcaraz and given both are Spanish, Alcaraz is dubbed as the next Nadal and the youngster is proving up to the tag given to him with consistent performances across surfaces that is further exciting the fans if he can actually replace the ‘King of Clay’.

“We all know that the comparison between Nadal and Alcaraz will exist. I think the most important thing for Carlos is just to stay away from that. He just needs to keep on his own way. It is normal to compare situations and rankings and results because if you become top ten on the same day, after winning the same tournament, being Spanish, it’s a big coincidence. It’s like the Karma of life, and something big is going to happen.

“I’m sure that he will overcome our careers (Spanish Tennis legends), the ones that are not Rafa’s. Rafa is another step, it’s another dimension, it’s something different. So, we leave that apart for the moment. But I’m 100% sure that he will become number one in the world, that he will win a slam and destroy all our records. When he’s talking after the matches, you can see he has so much confidence and believes he can beat anybody in the world,” said Corretja speaking with Eurosport.

Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz to feature in the Madrid Masters

Nadal and Alcaraz met on the Tour for the first time in last year’s Madrid Masters on Alcaraz’s birthday. They later met this year in the semi-finals of the 2022 Indian Wells Masters where Nadal won a closely fought 3-setter. Post the Indian Wells finals where Nadal came runner-up, the Spaniard was diagnosed with a stress fracture in his rib sidelining him for 4-6 weeks.

This meant that Nadal missed the 2022 Monte-Carlo Masters and the 2022 Barcelona Open where Alcaraz also played. While Carlitos lost in his debut match in Monte-Carlo, he won the title in Barcelona on the ‘Pista Rafael Nadal’ the centre court of the tournament. The two Spaniards will be back competing in the 2022 Madrid Masters as well with both players looking for their fourth title of the season.

Also Read: Injury forces Iga Swiatek to withdraw from the 2022 Madrid Open

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