Carlos Alcaraz has kicked off his debut tournament in Asia with a victory, defeating Yannick Hanfmann in Round 1 of the China Open. Alcaraz is set to play both in the China Open and the Shanghai Masters right after that. The Spanish youngster could become the first-ever men’s singles player from his country to win an ATP Masters 1000 title in China, should he win in Shanghai.
Both the China Open and the Shanghai Masters are tournaments which have been won most by Novak Djokovic over the years. With the Serb being absent this year from both, it leaves Carlos Alcaraz with a golden opportunity to create history at the age of 20. Rafael Nadal fell short of doing so by a narrow margin in 2017.
Carlos Alcaraz aims to break Spanish drought in China
No Spanish Grand Slam champion in tennis history has won both ATP 500 and ATP 1000 Masters titles in China. Rafael Nadal is the best performing player from his country as expected, having been champion in the China Open 250 back in 2005 and China Open 500 in 2017. His only other title in China is the Olympics gold medal in 2008.
However, Nadal has not managed to win the Shanghai Masters ever. He has made twice to the finals but lost to Nikolay Davydenko in 2009 and Roger Federer in 2017. The 22-time Grand Slam champion could have completed a memorable Chinese double in 2017 but has still set the bar extremely high with those results.
Carlos Alcaraz is the favorite to win both the titles after a good 3-week break. Fascinatingly, if he wins the China Open, he could become the second youngest Spaniard after Nadal to win the title. Nadal was 19 when he first won the tournament and that was his 11th ATP Title. Should Alcaraz also achieve the same result, it would be his 13th ATP title at the age of 20.
But if Carlos Alcaraz bags the Shanghai Masters, he would become the youngest-ever champion of the tournament and the only Spaniard in history to win it. Andy Murray and Daniil Medvedev, both at the age of 23 respectively, share the record of winning the tournament very early in their careers.
Alcaraz gets Djokovic warning with Nadal reference
In an interview with TennisHead recently, Novak Djokovic praised Carlos Alcaraz again but said that he would be his biggest rival for years to come. Djokovic acknowledged his rivalry with Alcaraz, believing that it can match up to the likes of his rivalries with Nadal and Federer over the years. The Serb was quoted as saying –
“It’s great for our sport there are more rivalries happening but rivalries with Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal particularly and also with Andy Murray are right up there for me.
“Hopefully I’ll play him [Alcaraz] as many times as I played the other guys and that will mean I’ll be playing for years to come. But I doubt that, let’s see how it goes.”
