The Palazzo Reale in Turin forms the setting for a fantasy evening. It is Italy, with all its flair and history, with all its heritage: its architecture, its sculptures, its endless arcades, its charming lack of control – the event begins and ends with considerable delay – and this Friday also with its tennis players, the eight monuments this season. One by one they climb the beautiful staircase that leads to a room surrounded by tapestries, canvases and coffered ceilings, glass and pendant lamps, vertical mirrors and marble, yes marble. There’s nothing left. Welcome to the opulent north of Piedmont, where every corner is showy and rewarding, it’s impossible not to stop and drool; This Masters Cup also deserves it, with the almighty Novak Djokovic at the top, the necessary youthful demeanor and another more than suggestive attraction with the first appearance of Carlos Alcaraz smiling.
The ATP’s master of ceremonies, Nicola Arzani, is playing at home but is amazed at the comings and goings of a good handful of people he cannot identify; Strangely enough, he barely misses anything. The local journalists (journalists?) come and go, and eventually the tennis players storm in. First up are Nole, Jannik Sinner, Holger Rune and Stefanos Tsitsipas, the Greek, wrapped in a lambskin poncho, which causes a few laughs. “I love it, it suits you…” says the serious sinner, who is an iceberg on the pitch and has no lack of humor off the pitch. “Janiiiiik!” shouts Russian Andrey Rublev, a member of the group who will speak next, as he walks across the room. The Italian will make his debut in the competition on Sunday, as will debutant Rune and big boss Djokovic. The latter praises the Nordic, who is now trained by his former coach Boris Becker, and the attentive German, who is also present in the room, chats with his Serbian friend: “Thank you, Novak, thank you!”
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As soon as the first shift is closed, Grupo Verde, the red squad, enters the scene, which will come into action a day later. Alcaraz will do it in the early afternoon (2:30 p.m.) and assures that “one hundred percent” the Murcian will repeat up to four times, covered with a red and white baseball jacket, dotted in the left chest area with a cluster of diamonds that light up each time, when you maneuver. In the middle of the exhibition, a cell phone rings and Daniil Medvedev, the tough guy who has to deal with stalls from half the world, is dancing and having fun. The Spaniard is covered by two other -evs, Rublev and Alexander Zverev, and tells those present that when he was 14 he played (and won, although he doesn’t say it) the youth tournament at the O2 in London and that he saw something that amazed him. That something was a certain Roger Federer.
Rune, Tsitsipas, Sinner, Alcaraz, Djokovic, Medvedev, Rublev and Zverev at the Palazzo Reale.
Along with Djokovic, the Swiss is the holder of the championship record with six titles each. Look for El Palmar first, but autumn, as beautiful as it is treacherous due to the transition, can confuse anyone; also to him, who after his summer stay in New York has not yet finished this overwhelming and entertaining game. He responded in the semi-finals in Beijing, but lost his breath in the round of 16 in Shanghai and finally failed in Paris-Bercy, where he stumbled in the first round against Roman Safiullin, a good tennis player who, playing under normal circumstances, would have had no greater resistance against him may represent. For this reason, this newspaper tells him that he has confused the staff and that it is not known which Alcaraz we will see these days at the Pala Alpitour in Turin and the boy answers with a good face.
Controlled pain
“To be honest, I expect a Carlos like at the beginning of the year, despite the results I have achieved in these last tournaments. I think the defeat in Paris was quite painful, but it showed me that I have to work harder, I have to work harder, and I did that. You always have to look for the positive in things and the fact that I lost there early on allowed me to train well for several days and come here in optimal condition. I think that these days I have done a great job both physically and in tennis and I feel pretty good,” he explains after having a great time in the morning during a promotional event for the sports brand that dresses him with Sinner, another player’s joy. Both present and future.
For him it is “a gift to be here”, although “we deserve it” and given the persistence of those interested, whether it can benefit and help him to have arrived at this last tournament of the year with a lower profile After releasing it again to restore the physical, technical and mental spark lost in the last two performances, he replies: “It could be. Ultimately, I’ve always said that fighting for number one was the main goal, right now [a 1.490 puntos de Nole, campeón reciente en Bercy] I think I practically lost it. So I’ll try to use that to my advantage. I won’t think about that, but about being here; “It’s my debut and we’re going to enjoy it as much as possible.”
Two years ago, before the big boom, Alcaraz completed the promising Masters Cup in Milan; a date that was already too small for him and in which he signed a complete victory (5); he only conceded one set. War now between heavy artillery, big words. Even during rehearsals there is no break, as was the case recently with Djokovic. The Balkans (36 years old) are not relaxing by chance. “The truth is, it doesn’t surprise me,” he says. “In the end, you train how you play, so there are no secrets. “Training makes perfection…” he adds before the deliberate pause: “And he is practically perfect, so it doesn’t surprise me that he trains this way.” He assures that the pain that plagued him in the last part of the course (plantar fascia, back), are under control (“care in detail”) and that he will approach the final spurt with guarantees among the strongest, without any damage that could occur a priori condition him. Having been absent for a year due to an abdominal tear that occurred a few days before the game in Turin, the Murcier finally appears in the big photo. Gone were the etiquette and the suits; Even Djokovic (blue and black baseball player) joins the rejuvenation. New times in the finale.
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