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Carlos Alcaraz’s fate-kissed tribute to Rafa Nadal as freakish stat makes French Open win iconic: 'I'll keep it forever'
Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal won their respective fifth career Grand Slam at the exact age of 22 years, one month and three days.
A spooky stat emerged after Carlos Alcaraz scripted an epic against Jannik Sinner on Court Phillipe Chatrier on Sunday. Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal won their respective fifth career Grand Slam at the exact age of 22 years, one month and three days. While the 22-year-old notched up the feat in Paris, Nadal had scripted it in 2008, after a come-from-behind win against Roger Federer in the Wimbledon final.
Alcaraz, who now has two French Open titles, two Wimbledon crowns and the 2022 US Open trophy to his name, reckoned it was pure "destiny" when made aware of the crazy Nadal feat. He further said it meant a huge honour for him and would remember this stat forever.
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"I have to realise that I've done it," he said. "I think that's the first step. Honestly, the coincidence of winning my fifth Grand Slam at the same age as Rafa Nadal, I'm going to say that's destiny, I guess. It is a stat that I'm going to keep for me forever, winning the fifth Grand Slam at the same time as Rafa, my idol, my inspirations. It's a huge honour honestly. Hopefully it's not going to stop like this."
Like Nadal in 2008, Alcaraz too came down from two sets down, then saved three championship points to beat Sinner 4-6 6-7(4) 6-4 7-6(3) 7-6(2) in a thriller at Roland Garros. The victory meant that besides remaining unbeaten in Slam finals thus far with an imperious 5-0 record, he now also has five straight wins against his arch-rival Sinner. However, he insisted that the Italian would get the better of him again one day.
"I'm sure he's going to learn from this match, and he's going to come back stronger the next time we are going to face against each other," he added. "I'm pretty sure he's going to make his homework.
"I'm pretty sure I'm going to try to learn from this match as well - how I can be better, how I can, you know, tactically make damage in his game.
"I repeat, I'm not going to beat him forever. That's obvious.
"So I have to keep learning from the matches I played against him, and hopefully play more Grand Slam finals."
Alcaraz will now turn his focus to Wimbledon, where he will look to defend his crown for the third time in a row. He has beaten Novak Djokovic in the previous two finals.
