On 5 May 2021  in the Madrid Open in the second round there was a match between Nadal and and the 18 year-old Alcaraz - easily won by Nadal.    After the match Nadal and the organizers of the event presented Alcaraz wit a birth day cake in the form of a fantasy castle and Nadal said we will see a lot of this youngster not yet in the op 100 ranked players inn future.

We did hear a lot of Alcaras and the story really started in July  2021 when he won the Croatia Open - his first ATP title.   Since then in tournaments he defeated -

*    Tsitsipas in the US Open in 2021

*    Berrettini in the Vienna Open

*    Ruud in the Argentine Open in January 2022

*    Berrettini in the Brazil Open in 2022

*    Caper Ruud in the Miami Open

*    Norrie at Indian Wells in 2022

*    Tsitsipas  in the Barcelona Open

Being the youngest player Alcaraz won the Next Generations Finals Tournament in Turin in 2021 beating the following  promising youngsters in the tournament -  Nakashima, Cerundolo,Rune, Baez and Korda.     

So what happened subsequently in matches against Nadal -

*     Alcaras lost in three sets in the Indian Wells semi-final in 2022; but

*     a day after his 19th birthday he beat Nadal in the same Madrid Open - this time in the quarterfinal. 

Now onto the Madrid Semi-final today against Djokovic.    Should he as expected beat Djokovic he will play either Tsitsipas or Zverev in the final.    

In the world Tennis rankings he reached the number 46 ranking in November 2021 and then he really started going up rapidly in the rankings to number 31 - then number 19 - then number 14 - before the Madrid tournament no 9.   Should he win the Madrid trophy he will reach no 6 in the world ranking as a 19-yar old.             

Another achievement by Alcaraz - beating Nadal and Djokovic on successive days on clay has never been achieved by any tennis player before.

Can Alcaraz win the Roland Garros major?    I think he can - in the two majors he played in  in 2021 and 2022 he reached the quarterfinals in both - but his improvement in 2022 was unbelievable - so he may just achieve that as well.           

Mozart 

Remember your HA-HA-HA thread when I dealt with Alcaraz on site and said he is a real future great in tennis?     This guy turned 19 on Thursday and has achieved more in tennis than anybody of that age before.    He thus far has beaten all bar two (Zverev and Rublev)  of the top 10 players in the world - he never in any tournament  played against the two players before.    He is a friend of Rublev though and the two of them regularly practice together.   .