The opening day of the Rio Open in Brazil was dominated by a marathon night-time classic involving the youngest player currently ranked inside the top 500 on the ATP Tour.
Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz made his ATP main draw debut in the Brazilian capital on Monday at the age of 16. Taking on veteran player and seventh seed Albert Ramos Viñolas, who is 15 years older than him, the teenager battled to an epic 7-6(2), 4-6, 7-6(2) victory. The roller coaster match lasted more than three-and-a-half hours and didn’t finish until 3am. The showdown was a stern test of Alcaraz’s mentality as he trailed 0-3 in the decider and then failed to convert two match points when leading 5-3 before prevailing in the tiebreaker.
“I will remember Rio forever,” atptour.com quoted Alcaraz as saying. “I am very happy to win my first ATP Tour match. This has been the longest and most intense match I’ve played so far. There were quite difficult conditions, but if you have the right attitude, the conditions don’t matter. You can achieve anything.”
Coached on the tour by former world No.1 Juan Carlos Ferrero, Alcaraz started to turn heads on the tour last year. At the Murcia Challenger, which was only his fourth senior tournament, he scored a win over the then ranked No.140 Pedro Martínez. Becoming the first Spanish male player to defeat a top 200 player since Rafael Nadal back in 2002.
“I always have positive thoughts. I always think I can win, no matter who the opponent is,” he said. “If you don’t think you can win, you shouldn’t go on the court.”
The belief that he has what it takes to one day rise to the top of the sport is there for the Spaniard. In an interview with Trans World Sport earlier this year (see video below), he said his goal was ‘to become world No.1 and win as many grand slams as possible.’
Hailing from the same homeland as tennis legend Rafael Nadal, the teenager is obviously inspired by him. However, Alcaraz believes his tennis is more similar to that of another member of the Big Three – Roger Federer.
”I like to play very aggressively, with a lot of winners. My style is more or less like Roger Federer’s, aggressively coming to the net and playing a lot of drop shots,” the Spaniard explained.
”When I spend time with tennis greats like Rafa or Ferrero or any other player, I don’t say anything. I listen to everything they say because it is very valuable to me,” he later added.
“In each tournament I go to, I try to do my best. If that happens, then I will gradually go up.”
Prior to Rio, the rising star has already enjoyed success on the ITF tour this year. In Manacor he won back-to-back $15,000 tournaments last month by dropping only two sets in total. Following that, he was also runner-up at another $15,000 event in Turkey to Zsombor Piros. Piros is currently the only player to defeat him in 2020.
Alcaraz is the first player born in 2003 to win an ATP Tour match. He will play Argentine qualifier Federico Coria in the second round.
