"That means I'm doing the right things" - Alcaraz on becoming youngest man to reach third round of a Grand Slam since Nadal
ATP
At just 18-years old, Carlos Alcaraz is already setting records as he swept past Nikoloz Basilashvili to advance to the third round at Roland Garros.
The Spaniard defeated the 28th seed 6-4 6-2 6-4 on Thursday, becoming the youngest man to reach the third round at the French Open since 17-year-old Andrei Medvedev in 1992. Furthermore, he also holds the distinction of being the youngest man to reach the third round of a Grand Slam since Rafael Nadal did so at the 2004 Australian Open, aged 17.
"Obviously it's good, the numbers, but I still focus on me," Alcaraz said. "That means that I'm going the right way. I am doing the right things, and I keep doing this. I'm still growing up as a player and as a person, and that's the important thing."
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Making his main draw debut in Paris, the Murica native was full of positive energy, evidenced by his fist pumps and roars of "Vamos" during his two-hour victory.
“Today the positive emotions were really, really important because Nikoloz is a really, really good tennis player,” Alcaraz revealed. “He has a lot of great skills. He hits the ball really, really hard, and if you don't focus, if you are not focused, it's hard to play against him. You have to be focused all the time.”
Growing up in a household where soccer was king, my earliest memories are filled with chants from packed stadiums and the rhythm of a ball being passed across neighborhood streets. But somewhere along the way, the quiet elegance and raw emotion of tennis pulled me in. What began as a curiosity became a lifelong passion; not just for the sport itself, but for the stories it tells: of grit, of heartbreak, of improbable comebacks and human resilience.
As a tennis writer, I bring the observational lens of someone who didn’t grow up in the sport, but fell in love with it as an outsider; a perspective that lets me see both its technical beauty and its emotional depth. Over the years working with TennisUpToDate, I’ve had the privilege of reaching more than 3.5 million readers worldwide, with one of my features ranking among the site’s top three articles.
With a background in storytelling and a creative mind always searching for meaning beyond the scoreboard, I aim to craft narratives that go deeper than results and rankings. Whether it’s a rising star breaking through or a veteran fighting off Father Time, I try to capture the heartbeat behind the headlines.
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