At the age of 18, Spanish Carlos Alcaras signed another show against the French Gail Monfils on Wednesday and became the youngest tennis player to reach the Indian Wells Masters 1000 quarterfinals since 1989.
On Track 2 in Indian Wells (California), Alkaraz beat Monpils aged 17, 7 to 5, and 6-1 for 1 hour and 17 minutes.
A fast-paced Spanish tennis player who won the 19th place in ATP, was the first to reach the Masters 1000 quarterfinals and was the youngest player to reach this point at Michael Chang's Indian Wells in 1989.
A new challenge awaits after defeating British Cameron Nori, the first champion of the tournament in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
If successful, they can be seen in the virtual semifinals with their country's big star Rafa Nadal, who will face Australia's Nick Kirgios in the quarterfinals.
“Nadal is my idol. It's very special to be so close to me,” Alkaraz said. “I wouldn't believe it (to face him), but I have to win the quarter-finals first.”
Since Alcaraz created a cover letter to the world of tennis with a dazzling victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas, who won the third place in the world at the US Open in October, he has continued to burn the scene at full speed.
A few weeks later, he won the Masters Next Gen with his best chain promise, and won his first ATP 500 tournament in Rio de Janeiro in February.
With this victory, he won the top 20 of ATP at a younger age than Nadal.
“I'm a very ambitious person and I have big dreams. When I was a kid, I always dreamed of becoming number one and winning the best in the world,” he said.
- “Another speed” -
In the Californian desert, Alcaraz does not give up any set and moves forward like a shot.
On Wednesday, his victim, Gael Monfils, gave a big surprise to the tournament, removing Daniel Medvedev, Russia, the number one in the world on Monday, but in the end he clearly became aware of the superiority of his opponents.
“It was much stronger than me. There was an answer to everything,” Monfils told a group of journalists after the match. “He is very good at everything. You don't have to think about the future with him. It's already now.”
Monphiles could not keep up with Alcatogether. Alcatogether dominated the stock exchange with solid hands, and the point completed at the right time with various repertoire blows.
In the first set, the Spaniards were always in front of the scoreboard until they broke the feed to put the Frenchman's sleeve in a bag with a 6-5 advantage.
At the beginning of the second set, Alcaraz smashed again with jewels at the end point, turned Monfilsa to the back of the track, and then knocked him down with a thin drop on the net.
The rest of the sleeve was a Spanish diamond exhibition full of strength, and before that, the French could hardly laugh at some point.
“I had to laugh at the end,” he explained. - 90% of people who are not athletes will say that I am not focused, but no, I had to relax,” he explained.
In addition to Nadal and Alkaras, Spanish compatriot Paula Vados, who dominates Indian Wells champions, will compete in the quarterfinals against Russian Veronica Cudermetova on Thursday.