{"id":2244,"date":"2024-09-20T02:25:34","date_gmt":"2024-09-20T02:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=2244"},"modified":"2024-09-20T02:25:34","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T02:25:34","slug":"playing-nadal-is-kind-of-a-nightmare-says-alcaraz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=2244","title":{"rendered":"Playing Nadal is ‘kind of a nightmare’, says Alcaraz"},"content":{"rendered":"

Berlin (AFP) \u2013\u00a0<\/span>Carlos Alcaraz has admitted to being starstruck when he first faced Rafael Nadal, saying that facing the 22-time Grand Slam champion was “kind of a nightmare”.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Rafael<\/picture>
Rafael Nadal (L) and teammate Carlos Alcaraz after their elimination in the doubles at the Paris 2024 Olympics<\/span>\u00a0\u00a9 CARL DE SOUZA \/ AFP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Speaking in Berlin on Thursday ahead of the Laver Cup, the 21-year-old Alcaraz reflected on his on-court battles with fellow Spaniard Nadal.<\/p>\n

“It was a huge thing when I played him for the first time,” said the world number three. “The other times for me were kind of a nightmare.”<\/p>\n

Alcaraz already has four Grand Slam titles, winning his first at the 2022 US Open in the same year Nadal won his most recent major at the French Open.<\/p>\n

Nadal, 38, was set to take the court alongside Alcaraz in Berlin, but pulled out due to his continued struggles with injury.<\/p>\n

“Playing against Rafa is always tough. Every time for me it was a privilege to share the court,” added Alcaraz.<\/p>\n

“Every time I faced him, I tried to be a good enough player to beat him.”<\/p>\n

There was speculation Nadal may retire from the sport at the Laver Cup, as great rival Roger Federer had done two years ago, but he is set to continue.<\/p>\n

Alcaraz will play doubles alongside German Alexander Zverev for Team Europe at the tournament, with their first clash coming against Americans Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton for Team World.<\/p>\n

Preparing to play on home soil, Zverev said of Alcaraz: “It’s a privilege to share the court with a legend of our sport already.”<\/p>\n

The two have clashed three times in 2024, including in the French Open final, which Alcaraz won in five sets.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s amazing to hear my teammates call me a tennis legend, but I try not to think about it,” said Alcaraz.<\/p>\n

“Above all, what makes you a legend in tennis is what you contribute to the sport and how you try and take tennis to the top, to be heard in every corner of the world.<\/p>\n

“To attract the largest possible audience, to people who have never seen tennis in their lives, thanks to you they watch it on TV or start to play, that makes you a legend, apart from the tournaments you have won and the success you have.”<\/p>\n

Team Europe won the first four Laver Cups, starting in 2017, but Team World have won the past two.<\/p>\n

Alcaraz has the most Grand Slam titles of any current player besides Nadal and Novak Djokovic.<\/p>\n

Team World captain John McEnroe, who this week called Alcaraz “the biggest breath of fresh air we’ve had in the sport in 10 years”, said Thursday the emergence of a next generation of talent meant the men’s game was in good hands.<\/p>\n

“We were just watching the three greatest players who ever lived,” McEnroe said. “(We thought) what’s gonna happen? And suddenly, things seem to be doing OK.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got some energy in our sport and this event helps with it.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Berlin (AFP) \u2013\u00a0Carlos Alcaraz has admitted to being starstruck when he first faced Rafael Nadal, saying that facing the 22-time Grand Slam champion was “kind of a… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2248,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennis"],"yoast_head":"\nPlaying Nadal is 'kind of a nightmare', says Alcaraz - Sport News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=2244\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Playing Nadal is 'kind of a nightmare', says Alcaraz - Sport News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Berlin (AFP) \u2013\u00a0Carlos Alcaraz has admitted to being starstruck when he first faced Rafael Nadal, saying that facing the 22-time Grand Slam champion was “kind of a...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=2244\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sport News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-09-20T02:25:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/2-123.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"MrThuan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"MrThuan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=2244\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=2244\",\"name\":\"Playing Nadal is 'kind of a nightmare', says Alcaraz - Sport News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=2244#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=2244#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/2-123.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-09-20T02:25:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-09-20T02:25:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/#\/schema\/person\/f294530285e51853800f403b386b29e9\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=2244#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=2244\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=2244#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/2-123.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/2-123.jpg\",\"width\":2000,\"height\":1600},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=2244#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Playing Nadal is ‘kind of a nightmare’, says Alcaraz\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/\",\"name\":\"Sport News\",\"description\":\"Explore top US sports stories\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/#\/schema\/person\/f294530285e51853800f403b386b29e9\",\"name\":\"MrThuan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c5b64710f6f1bb07b1ec76a4e2746d05b11b7565055659141eef8ee88bf5d1bf?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c5b64710f6f1bb07b1ec76a4e2746d05b11b7565055659141eef8ee88bf5d1bf?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"MrThuan\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?author=3\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Playing Nadal is 'kind of a nightmare', says Alcaraz - Sport News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=2244","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Playing Nadal is 'kind of a nightmare', says Alcaraz - Sport News","og_description":"Berlin (AFP) \u2013\u00a0Carlos Alcaraz has admitted to being starstruck when he first faced Rafael Nadal, saying that facing the 22-time Grand Slam champion was “kind of a...","og_url":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=2244","og_site_name":"Sport News","article_published_time":"2024-09-20T02:25:34+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2000,"height":1600,"url":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/2-123.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"MrThuan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"MrThuan","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=2244","url":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=2244","name":"Playing Nadal is 'kind of a nightmare', says Alcaraz - Sport News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=2244#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=2244#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/2-123.jpg","datePublished":"2024-09-20T02:25:34+00:00","dateModified":"2024-09-20T02:25:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/#\/schema\/person\/f294530285e51853800f403b386b29e9"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=2244#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=2244"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=2244#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/2-123.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/2-123.jpg","width":2000,"height":1600},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=2244#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Playing Nadal is ‘kind of a nightmare’, says Alcaraz"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/","name":"Sport News","description":"Explore top US sports stories","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/#\/schema\/person\/f294530285e51853800f403b386b29e9","name":"MrThuan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c5b64710f6f1bb07b1ec76a4e2746d05b11b7565055659141eef8ee88bf5d1bf?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c5b64710f6f1bb07b1ec76a4e2746d05b11b7565055659141eef8ee88bf5d1bf?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"MrThuan"},"url":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?author=3"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2244"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2249,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2244\/revisions\/2249"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}