In that era, I created this fake player named Juan Marino Icar - a tall, lanky spaniard with a backhand of Safin, a forehand of a Federer, a good but not great serve, and in incredible level of fitness. This player in my fake version of teh sport, would come around 2015 or so, win a few slams at the twilight of Nadal's and Djokovic's and Del Potro's career (yes, back then we all expected big things from him). But when those guys wouild fall off completely around 2017 or so, well Mr. Icar would go on a huge run and end up with 17 slams in his career, overtaking Federer and taking the title back to Spain in honor of his countryman Nadal - who ended up 14 or somethign like that.
So much of this weird prediction didn't happen - most notably this bizarre notion that was supported by 100% of the historical tennis to that point that players would age out of winning slams around 32 or so. But weirdly, that player I created in my mind, is here. Took seven years longer for him to come (and Federer, Nadal, Djokovic to age). His name is not Juan Marino Icar, but Carlos Alcaraz - backhand of Safin, great forehand, good not great serve, an athleticism that was stunning for a guy already his size - is the living embodiment of my fake manifestation.
I avoided watching the first two sets of the final, waking up to him having lost the first set 6-1, and then next checking the score when they were in a tiebreak. I figured Djokovic would win that, as he had won 15 straight teibreaks in slams (an absurd stat), but somehow Alcaraz pulled that off with an incredible passing shot return. He then dominated the 3rd set, including an amazing 15-deuce, 28-minute game to break Djokovic for a second time. He was the faster player, the cleaner player, and most incredible, the sharper, more present player.
But Djokovic does not jsut go away, especially to these young guys. He/s been in a lot of precarious situations these last few years against the next gen (and the Alcaraz, Sinner, Rune gen is very much here) but was able to fight his way back. Not this time. Alcaraz is here.
Carlos Alcaraz's game is indescribably good in the way that I always imagined of this Icar character. Brilliant ground strokes, but more than that a rare tennis IQ for a player his age, be it hsi drop-shots, his decisions on when to go up the line, his ability to seemingly predict where Djokovic would hit to then run around it. He was just so complete, something that I haven't seen of a player this age since Nadal.
There's a lot of discussion of this being the changing of the guard, and the Alcaraz era and what not, and honestly none of that is premature. This is not just a great young player, this is the best young player since Nadal. Alcaraz is the youngest #1 ever. He's the youngest player to win two slams since Nadal's 2006 French Open. He's the youngest player to win two different slams since god knows who. He's also great on clay, despite him not having won the French yet. He's just insane. There are other great players around his age, that have gone deep in slams like Jannik Sinner and Holger Rune, and slightly older guys like Medvedev, Ruud, Rublev, Tsitsipas and others, but this is Alcaraz's time.
And it came at just the right time. With Federer retired, and Nadal saying he's joining him in retirement at the end of 2024, tennis was in a boring current with Djokovic dominating endlessly, with an even more troubling future. One match, one player, doesn't change all that - but Alcaraz has the game, the charisma, the energy and the poise to be the next leader of the sport. You hope that others will join him, and they will. He can't win every tournament, but as the spearhead for that next generation, Carlos Alcaraz is everything I could have asked for - and everything I did when I created Juan Marino Icar back in 2007 or so. He's finally here, with a different name, but a similar game from the same country, and he was more than worth the wait.
