Rafael Nadal sends across special wishes for Carlos Alcaraz ahead of his debut at the ATP Finals

Carlos Alcaraz set to face Alexander Zverev in the first match in his debut at the ATP Finals this year.

Rafael Nadal sends across special wishes for Carlos Alcaraz ahead of his debut at the ATP Finals

Carlos Alcaraz (L), Rafael Nadal (R) (Sources: X/Instagram)

Carlos Alcaraz kicks off his campaign in the 2023 ATP Finals, Turin, on 13th November with his match against Alexander Zverev. This is the first time that he is participating in the tournament as he got injured during ATP Finals 2022.

Ahead of the tournament, Alcaraz talked about Rafael Nadal in a video that he posted on his Instagram account and revealed his dream of becoming one of the best tennis players in history someday. Nadal himself replied, commented on that video, and wished the fellow Spaniard luck for the upcoming ATP Finals. 

YouTube video

Carlos Alcaraz was heard saying in the video,

FS Video
Well, I want to be one of the best tennis players in history. To, you know, being in the same table as the legend, Rafa. Rafa was my hero when I was young, when I started playing tennis. I used to watch his matches, finals, lifting the best trophies in the world, I felt, for me, Rafa was my hero growing up.

Nadal replied to this and wrote, 

Big hug and good luck in Turin.

Nadal has himself been away from the court since the Australian Open 2023 (back in January) after suffering a hip injury. He will now be making his return to tennis in the 2024 Australian Open where he might even have to face Carlos Alcaraz. 

On the other hand, Alcaraz’s form has taken a major dip ever since he lost to Daniil Medvedev in the final of the 2023 US Open. He has suffered back-to-back defeats after that in important tournaments and his first-round exit in the Paris Masters 2023 against Roman Safiullin was the worst of them all. 

Carlos Alcaraz’s odds of becoming the year-end World No. 1 are very less

After World No. 1 Novak Djokovic announced that he will not take part in the Asian swing after winning the 2023 US Open to prioritize taking a rest, Alcaraz had received a massive opportunity to improve his ranking points during this time. Unfortunately, he was unable to make good use of this opportunity and ended up wasting it. 

Carlos Alcaraz
Carlos Alcaraz (Source: Forbes)

After back-to-back failures in tournaments, Alcaraz is now way behind the Serb in the rankings. Although he still has the chance of becoming the year-end World No. 1, for that to happen, Djokovic must lose all matches in the ATP Finals and the 20-year-old must win the tournament. The odds of that happening are very low. 

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