The Carlos Alcaraz show returns to raves

INDIAN WELLS, California – It’s a pretty easy crowd at the BNP Paribas Open in the heart of the Coachella Valley.

Spectators enjoy the sun. They wander the grounds gazing at the mountains. They drink cheap expensive beer. Sometimes they watch tennis. Often not.

And then Saturday night rolled around, and just about every seat in Stadium 1 was taken on a breezy desert night cold enough for puffer jackets.

Carlos Alcaraz was at home, hamstring weak and all, trying to give this tournament – and really the sport itself – the kind of juice that only he seems to be able to deliver these days, especially with Rafael Nadal sidelined with an injury and Novak Djokovic banned from entering the United States due to his refusal to be vaccinated against Covid-19.

To do that, however, Alcaraz, the 19-year-old Spanish star, has to be on the court, and that hasn’t happened much since he worked his way to his first Grand Slam title and the No. 1 ranking in the US. Opened last September in New York.

That effort required a series of marathon races, including one that lasted until nearly 3am. Since then, he mostly hobbles. The fall left him with an abdominal injury. Then, in his final workout before his scheduled trip to the Australian Open, he pulled a hamstring while sprinting and stretching to reach a short ball.

Alcaraz, whose foot-on-the-gas style can make him more prone to injury like his compatriot Nadal, returned to play two minor tournaments in South America last month. He won the title in Buenos Aires. He then made it to the final in Rio de Janeiro, but his hamstring aggravated halfway through his three-set loss to Britain’s Cameron Norrie. He withdrew from his next tournament, in Acapulco, to rest for Indian Wells, where tournament organizers worried about losing Nadal and Djokovic prayed that Alcaraz would recover in time.

“Tennis insiders knew there was a new kid, maybe the next Rafa,” Tommy Haas, the German former pro who is the tournament director here, said of Alcaraz in the tense days before the start of the tournament. “And all of a sudden he’s just having a blowout year and becoming the youngest No. 1 of all time and you think, ‘How is this possible, and how amazing is he to watch?'”

There are a handful of players who can make an early round match feel like a big event, and Alcaraz did just that on Saturday night when he ambushed Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis to win in straight sets.

Iga Swiatek from Poland, the number 1 of the women, played in a largely empty stadium in the afternoon. Taylor Fritz, the defending champion and American top man, and Ben Shelton, also an American and the brightest surprise of the young season, then dueled in a tight three-set battle that occupied a large majority of the Stadium 1 seats. But it was nothing compared to the packed crowd Alcaraz drew for the last game of the evening.

Even Jimmy Connors, who knows a thing or two about putting on a show, hung on, high in the stadium in the media seats. Alcaraz was at it again on Monday evening and played in the place of the headliner – albeit in front of a thinner school evening crowd – against the Dutch Tallon Greco track. Basketball great and tennis obsessed Dirk Nowitzki was on the court.

There’s that crackling forehand that sounds different from everyone else’s, more like an ax cleaving a tree trunk than polyester strings hitting a fuzzy ball. There are all the desperate sprints after near-unreachable balls that so many players ignore. He has the most delicate and deceptive drop shot and stabbing volleys.

When a lanky drop shot clipped the tape and trickled just over the sideline, he turned in terror. How dare gravity and subtle currents of the desert air combine to disrupt his attempts at perfection.

“I try to let people enjoy watching tennis,” said Alcaraz after his first win. “And I think the way I play, they love it.”

He will play Jack Draper of Britain in the eighth finals on Tuesday evening.

The game contributes to much younger players. The pressure of expectations, the constant attention and the relentless schedule have toppled top talent, either temporarily, in the case of Nick Kyrgios, or permanently. A year ago, Ashleigh Barty retired as the world number 1 at the age of 25.

There are also players a few years older than Alcaraz who flirted with his level, or reached it, only to fall back before fans could get on the bandwagon.

Daniil Medvedev won the US Open in 2021 and climbed to first place in the rankings early last year, but only won two minor titles. He currently has a 16 match winning streak. Stefanos Tsitsipas has reached two Grand Slam finals, but nerves and Djokovic won him both times.

As for the Alcaraz-type players, they know that his early success has set a standard that will be hard to match.

“I’ll try,” said Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti, who is 21 and grew up playing in junior tournaments with Alcaraz, shaking his head inconclusively after his second-round loss here this weekend.

Until now, Alcaraz seemed immune to the usual fears. His approach?

“Live the moment, play the game and go for it,” he said.

Alcaraz has had some help this week in producing the kind of buzz the sport is always looking for. England’s Emma Raducanu, who won the 2021 US Open as a qualifier, is on a roll, winning three straight matches for the second time since her escape from a Grand Slam.

Success largely comes out of nowhere. Raducanu, who deleted Instagram from her phone last month to better focus on herself, has struggled with injuries and illnesses, most recently with a wrist problem. She hardly prepared for this tournament and did not train for her first match for four days.

But on Monday afternoon against Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia, the 13th seed, Raducanu once again hit her deadly forehand into the corners and rolled her windmill backhand with a freedom that had been largely absent for the past year. And she did it in front of a boisterous crowd on the court, just like in the not-so-old days of the 2021 US Open. She was scheduled to face Swiatek on Tuesday in a match between the two most recent US Open champions.

“I’ve done really well mentally just staying, you know, hitting the shots and trying to give it my all, even when it’s tight,” she said after her three-set win.

In other words, what the player now known by everyone as Carlito intends to do Tuesday night against Draper, who at 21 may be a rival for a long time to come.

“I’m going to enjoy it,” said Alcaraz.

More than likely, pretty much everyone will be watching.