16-year-old Carlos Alcaraz receives Rafa Nadal Open wild card
The second edition of the Rafa Nadal Open Challenger will take place at his Academy in Mallorca from August 26, gathering a solid field of players considering the US Open takes place in the same week. Bernard Tomic will not be in Mallorca to defend the title and the top seed should be Peter Gojowczyk who has played on a high level in the last couple of weeks in the USA. Gregoire Barrere, Norbert Gombos, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Matthias Bachinger, Nicola Kuhn, Dennis Novak, Lukas Rosol and Mikael Ymer are also in the contention for a good result while the first wild card went to the 16-year-old Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz.
The winner of Rafa Nadal Tour at this same place a few years ago, Carlos is the most prominent Spanish talent at the moment, becoming the eighth-youngest Futures champion a few weeks ago, achieving the feat just a month older than Rafael Nadal when he claimed the first professional crown in 2002! A year and a half ago, Alcaraz qualified for the first professional tournament at home Spain F5 Futures in Murcia at 14, passing three rivals just to find himself in the main draw where he grabbed two triumphs, reaching the quarter-final and becoming the first player born in 2003 on the ATP ranking list!
This January, Carlos was the semi-finalist at M15 Palmanova event, still at the age of 15, followed by the first Challenger win in Alicante in April, delivering the milestone achievement for his generation at this level of competition. A week later, Alcaraz notched two victories at Murcia Challenger for more points on his tally, standing as one of the youngest players on the reduced ATP ranking list. He will now have the opportunity to compete at Challenger once again, seeking more big wins and the place in the top-500 as soon as possible after almost getting there in April.
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2Ma4c0y
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