{"id":76117,"date":"2021-05-05T19:59:18","date_gmt":"2021-05-05T18:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/desarrollo.mutuamadridopen.com\/?p=65704"},"modified":"2021-05-05T19:59:18","modified_gmt":"2021-05-05T18:59:18","slug":"alcaraz-an-unforgettable-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/alcaraz-an-unforgettable-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Alcaraz: \u201cAn unforgettable experience\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Carlos Alcaraz will never forget his 18th\u00a0birthday. The young Murcia native said his goodbyes to the Mutua Madrid Open today, the day when he became a man and played in a clash of generations against five-time #MMOPEN champion Rafa Nadal.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"es\">&#8220;No te la comas toda&#8221; ??<\/p>\n<p>\u00a1Cumplea\u00f1os feliz, Carlos! ?<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/alcarazcarlos03?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@alcarazcarlos03<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RafaelNadal?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@RafaelNadal<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/MMOPEN?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#MMOPEN<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/GZHR5POpe2\">pic.twitter.com\/GZHR5POpe2<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 #MMOPEN (@MutuaMadridOpen) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MutuaMadridOpen\/status\/1389962506714718210?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">May 5, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>Alcaraz\u2019s reaction after his encounter with Nadal<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>On the match:<\/strong> \u201cI think I could have done better. But at the end of the day it\u2019s Rafa. Playing against him is not easy the first time, or when you\u2019ve done it five times. But playing against Rafa is super special, as is being able to learn from him on court\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think next time will be completely different. I\u2019ll know more or less how to play, how to come out on court. I think this time wanting to finish the points off quickly got the better of me and there was a moment that I didn\u2019t know Rafa was opposite me and that he would keep hitting it back, ball after ball\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was an unforgettable experience that I will always have with me\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Calling the physio was nothing more than a scare.<\/strong> &#8220;That slight twinge was in the moment and then I was fine. I was facing an in-form Rafa. He didn\u2019t allow me to play great tennis, I was being dictated to the whole time. It\u2019s never easy facing Rafa and you have to know how to handle those types of players\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nadal\u2019s praise will provide extra motivation.<\/strong> \u201cIt means a lot to me. When people above you praise you like that, saying that you\u2019re doing things well\u2026 it means so much. Rafa has been my idol since I was very small and I try to follow in his footsteps. Rafa has never behaved badly on court, he has never complained, and in the end those kinds of things also affect you on court. I try to follow in his footsteps and I think I\u2019m doing things right. If I continue in that way, I will be on the right path\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Carlos Alcaraz will never forget his 18th\u00a0birthday. The young Murcia native said his goodbyes to the Mutua Madrid Open today, the day when he became a man and played in a clash of generations against five-time #MMOPEN champion Rafa Nadal. &#8220;No te la comas toda&#8221; ?? \u00a1Cumplea\u00f1os feliz, Carlos! ?@alcarazcarlos03 | @RafaelNadal | #MMOPEN pic.twitter.com\/GZHR5POpe2 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":76118,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[180,18,179],"tags":[41,66,159,208],"class_list":["post-76117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mens-tennis","category-mutua-news","category-tennis","tag-atp-en","tag-carlos-alcaraz-en","tag-mutua-madrid-open-2021-en","tag-rafa-nadal-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}