Indian Wells SF: Carlos Alcaraz vs Rafael Nadal

  • Thread starter Thread starter Vamos Rafa Nadal
  • Start date Start date

Who will win the match and how many sets?

  • Total voters
    94
  • Poll closed .
Not saying that if he wins tomorrow it isn’t impossible to think he can go 30-0. Not saying he’s gonna sweep the clay season. But Monte Carlo is his favorite event next to RG. Barcelona tends to be an easier event for him to win. 30 match wins in a row to start the season is not out of the realm of possibility
 
Why are some people making so much of the medical break of Rafa. It was hardly a 1-2 minute beak I think. He hopped back on court quickly. Also, the 3rd set was actually decided by Rafa winning few crucial points at the net which could have gone either ways.
Alcaraz had break points in the 3rd set and didn't convert. Rafa had 1 break point in 3rd set and converted. Thats what won him the match. End of story.
 
BGod said:
Freaking veteran moves from Rafa. How I hate him sometimes. Because he loses me money (his payouts are too damn low for me to bet on him to win fyi).

Alcaraz DID blink though.
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Bet on Nadal wins in 3 sets.
You will have good profits.
;)
 
darthrafa said:
Have u consulted fritz first?
He had good experience of playing against one always faking injury
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Totally true.
I did not forget that Joker made his classic trick of getting injured and all his gestures to make it appear that he was in physical trouble, and then later in the fifth set he overwhelmed the naive Fritz.
:censored:
 
ForumMember said:
Eventually match lived up to its hype atleast for a set. Very satisfying performance by Rafa in third set. Alcaraz was hitting so good so clean still Rafa was able to come on top with some great play. He matched stroke play of Alcaraz and went ahead with his net play. One of the best set he played this year.

I see him winning title tomorrow.
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If successful, he will be the first player to win consecutive titles at an ATP 250, an ATP 500, an ATP Masters 1000 and a Grand Slam tournament, I believe.
:)
 
By the way, with his win against Alcaraz, Nadal sets a new record for outdoor wins in the Open Era, reaching his triumph 954, displacing Federer (953).
In a year or so, the Spaniard could well reach 1,000 victories under these conditions.
:alien:
 
Yowzers! I just watched Carlos's post-match press conference and just WOW! He is so level-headed, such a nice and good guy, so likeable, no complaining, just positive vibes and a willingness to learn and accept things as they are - contrast this to press conferences by Zverev, Tsistsipas, Kyrgios, Medvedev, and others, this kid is just such a wonderful human being and is going to become an all-time great! He needs a bit more seasoning, to work on CONSISTENCY, but he is on his way already! I was incredibly impressed! I just love Carlos so much!

I know that there are brats online who are negative and sour about everything all the time and will not "allow" themselves to understand that Carlos did great in this tournament despite not winning it. He came super close and once he plays more consistently there will be no stopping him. He is almost there already.
 
_phantom said:
Post match press conferences



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Nice press conference. Love that he played Carlos like Carlos was already a top 8 player. I agree with that entirely. Carlos's ranking does not reflect his level of play yet. It's funny how he enjoys playing in the wind! This was a fascinating press conference. Looking forward to seeing if he can win this tournament after 9 years since his last win here!
 
Observations on the match:

Set 1 - Alcatraz with the lead, but too inconsistent and couldn't close it out. Nadal played well within himself but Alcatraz made too many UFEs especially at crucial points to lose the set. The youngster need to find the right times to go for the kill and not always strive for the highlight reel low percentage winners.

Set 2: Crazy windy conditions. And you would generally think Nadal would prevail being a great wind player. But he actually didn't play all that great. His serve was not on point and could not find the right mix between offense and defense. GOAT lob from Alcatraz to break for the set. The youngster actually cut down on the errors. Impressive stuff.

Set 3:. This one came down to experience. Finally Nadal started to play a little bit better. Started to get a little bit more aggressive, changed direction and came to the net to finish points. Thought Alcatraz was a little bit unlucky here. He lost like 1 point on serve in the 3 games he won. And then lost 4 just in one game. Meaning the youngster was dominating a lot of neutral points.

Overall for Nadal: This isn't vintage Rafa. Not close to his prime hardcourt tennis. This version of Rafa does have big lapses. He can go away for parts of the match and start missing on his usually reliable forehand. He can be very shaky on serve.
However, the brilliance is always there: ATG tennis when he needs to squeeze out matches. He isn't blowing away his opposition, like in his heyday, but he is still managing to win against everyone not named Novak.
Side note: Excellent Net play from Rafa. The volleys in set 3 would have done Sampras and Edberg proud. Vintage stuff.

Overall for Alcatraz: So close, and almost got the win. Great defense, great movement and unreal firepower of both wings. His shot selection has improved but he still needs to get a little bit better at choosing when to pull the trigger. Cut down on some basic UFEs which you never see from Nadal/Novak etc. And while he is there, also improve his serve a little bit.

But Carlos is so young and level headed - so maybe in a year , he will be way better. No shame in losing to a vastly more experienced player in a very tight match.
 
Vamos Rafa Nadal said:
Yowzers! I just watched Carlos's post-match press conference and just WOW! He is so level-headed, such a nice and good guy, so likeable, no complaining, just positive vibes and a willingness to learn and accept things as they are - contrast this to press conferences by Zverev, Tsistsipas, Kyrgios, Medvedev, and others, this kid is just such a wonderful human being and is going to become an all-time great! He needs a bit more seasoning, to work on CONSISTENCY, but he is on his way already! I was incredibly impressed! I just love Carlos so much!

I know that there are brats online who are negative and sour about everything all the time and will not "allow" themselves to understand that Carlos did great in this tournament despite not winning it. He came super close and once he plays more consistently there will be no stopping him. He is almost there already.
Click to expand...

I think Med too is quite level headed at pressers.
 
Excellent match with a really windy second set. The only difference in the whole over 3 hour match was the last 10-15 minutes and the last three games of the third set. Otherwise, the win could've gone either way. One little thing that could've changed the result was Alcaraz's often flat/wide first service.
 
Visionary said:
Excellent match with a really windy second set. The only difference in the whole over 3 hour match was the last 10-15 minutes and the last three games of the third set. Otherwise, the win could've gone either way. One little thing that could've changed the result was Alcaraz's often flat/wide first service.
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It really came down to the 8th game in the third set. Super close match. Improving his serve needs to be Alcaraz's top priority going forward.
 
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