Rafael Nadal‘s uncle Toni believes there is only one player capable of matching up to Carlos Alcaraz following his Wimbledon triumph over Novak Djokovic. The young Spaniard breezed to a second straight SW19 title without dropping a set and was better than Djokovic in every department.
Alcaraz’s emphatic victory has since been touted as a changing of the guard, with Djokovic no longer the unstoppable force he once was. The seven-time Wimbledon champion, who is yet to win a title of any kind this year, was simply unable to respond to what Alcaraz was throwing at him.
Toni Nadal believes that Djokovic struggled to cope with the tempo of Alcaraz’s play and was relying on luck that never arrived. The Spaniard, writing in his El Pais column, went on to name Jannik Sinner as the only player who can give Alcaraz a proper test with Djokovic no longer a threat.
Reflecting on Djokovic’s tactical approach, Nadal said: “Knowing that neither his legs nor the precision of his strokes were what they once were, and that a long and physical match would not help him either, he tried a tactic that ultimately proved suicidal.
“He wanted to impose a high tempo, play aggressively, shorten the exchanges from the back of the court and at the slightest opportunity, close out the points at the net. In my opinion, the only option the Serbian had was to try to slow down the game, to hope that he was completely right and to trust that Carlos was not having his best day.
“Trying to beat the player from Murcia by speed is practically impossible nowadays. Perhaps only Jannik Sinner can play the Spaniard on equal terms. And, in fact, this Sunday’s final confirms that the real rivalry in the next tournaments and, probably, in the next few years will be between these two: the Italian and our great Spanish champion.”
Sinner, like Alcaraz, has been widely tipped as a future star of the sport and surpassed Djokovic at the top of the ATP rankings earlier this year. He won his first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open, beating Daniil Medvedev in the final with Alcaraz crashing out in the last eight.
Recent matches between Alcaraz and Sinner have been closely fought, with the Spaniard winning five of their nine meetings to date. There is every chance they will face each other in future Grand Slam finals as they embark on a rivalry that could dominate tennis for many years to come.
Content Source: www.express.co.uk