Alcaraz sends one other message to Nadal followers in bid for personal French Open legacy
Alcaraz is thru to the quarter-final of the French Open for the second successive season after shedding to Alexander Zverev on the identical stage final 12 months. This time round, the Spaniard is the world No 1 and a reigning Grand Slam champion on the US Open.
And the draw can be extra open than ever within the absence of Alcaraz’s compatriot Nadal, who’s a 14-time champion on the French Open and has solely misplaced a match on three events. The 20-year-old had previously discussed whether Nadal’s fans had been pulling for him this year in the absence of their man.
And he had one other message for his new supporters after beating Lorenzo Musetti on Sunday. “I feel the affection of the people, I don’t know if they are followers of Rafa who are now followers of Alcaraz. I want to think so,” the highest seed mentioned after his 6-3 6-2 6-2 win.
It comes after a reporter instructed Alcaraz that the Nadal followers at Roland Garros mentioned they had been supporting him this time round. Speaking after his first-round win, the 20-year-old responded: “Well, yeah, I feel the love from the people.
“You know, I don’t know if they are the Rafael Nadal fans or not, but I felt the energy from the crowd. I felt the love, you know, and it was great to feel that.” Alcaraz had beforehand shared his disappointment that Nadal was pressured to tug out of the event.
The 10-time title winner mentioned: “I felt bad when I hear that Rafa, he was not able to play here in Roland Garros and probably the rest of the year. You know, as I said before, as a fan of tennis, as I said, as a fan, you know, I always to watch Rafa playing. I always want to watch the best players in the world playing the tournaments.
“And of course learning from them really close, here in the locker rooms, you know, around the club, the tournament for me is great. When I hear that, for me, it was tough, you know, to understand how it’s gonna be, you know, without Rafa this year. Hopefully to see him next year that he’s 100 per cent, hopefully.”
For now, the 20-year-old is targeted on going all the best way in Paris this 12 months after he was thwarted within the quarter-final 12 months in the past. “We’re going to play them as one more round, without putting in extra pressure. The good thing is that now I know what it’s like to play a quarter-final at Roland Garros,” he mentioned forward of Tuesday night time’s conflict with Stefanos Tsitsipas.