Nadal academy snaps up former world No 1’s son as they plot to dethrone Alcaraz

“The 16, 17, and 18 who see him and say, ‘If he can do it, I can do it too! If he’s working like this, I’m working like that!’ But they are all going to find their own way.” As for Cruz, {the teenager} made his debut in the primary draw of a junior Grand Slam event earlier this 12 months on the Australian Open however misplaced within the first spherical.

After successful his first title on the J5-level event in Lautoka, Fiji final 12 months, he has continued to enhance in 2023. Cruz already has two greater titles to his title from the J30 in Christiansted and the J60 in Darwin, additionally reaching the ultimate of the J30 in Nassau.

The 14-year-old additionally isn’t the primary participant with a former professional mum or dad to affix the Rafa Nadal Academy. Casper Ruud is the son of Christian Ruud, a former world No 39 whose finest Grand Slam end result got here on the 1997 Australian Open the place he reached the fourth spherical. The youthful Ruud determined to decide on the trail of Nadal’s academy in 2018. Four years later, he was going through Nadal himself within the closing of the French Open.