Alcaraz seeks third Grand Slam title

PARIS (AP):

WHEN CARLOS Alcaraz was a kid growing up in Spain – which, considering he’s only 21, was not all that long ago – he used to run home from school and flip on the TV to check out the French Open.

Long before he was preparing to play in today’s final in Paris against Alexander Zverev, Alcaraz watched a lot of matches involving Rafael Nadal, of course, as his countryman was accumulating a record 14 titles at Roland Garros.

“I wanted to put my name on that list of the Spanish players who won this tournament. Not only Rafa,” said Alcaraz, who then rattled off champions such as Juan Carlos Ferrero (who happens to be his coach), Carlos Moya and Albert Costa, calling them “legends from our sport that won this tournament.”

He just might join them.

Alcaraz has triumphed on the US Open’s hard courts in 2022, and Wimbledon’s grass courts in 2023, and now he is one victory away from holding a trophy on the red clay of Court Philippe Chatrier in southwest Paris. He would be the youngest man to own a major championship on all three surfaces; as it is, he’s the youngest to make it to finals on every surface.

Zverev, who is from Germany, is trying to claim his first Grand Slam title. He was the runner-up to Dominic Thiem at the 2020 US Open after blowing a two-set lead and losing in five.

“I’ve said it before and I’m going to say it now again: I was not ready. I was not ready to win my first Grand Slam final. I was not mature enough. I was maybe too much of a kid still. I didn’t know what the occasion means. And that’s why I lost,” Zverev said, thinking back to what happened in a nearly empty Arthur Ashe Stadium during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I’m 27 years old now. So definitely not a kid anymore. Already getting older. If not now, then when?”