It wasn’t a funeral oration, but it looked a little like one all the same. After crushing Richard Gasquet in three sets (7-6 [5]6-1, 6-2) this Tuesday, in the first round of the Australian Open, Carlos Alcaraz painted a glowing portrait of his victim of the day, without flowers or crowns.
“He’s a great player and above all a good person,” slipped the world No. 2, a delicious mix of power and touch, into the microphone of John McEnroe, luxury interviewer on the Rod Laver Arena, the center court from Melbourne. “He has so much talent,” added the 20-year-old Spaniard about his 37-year-old senior, hailing his “crazy” setback like all his colleagues before him.
The Héraultais’ favorite weapon slammed again intermittently, to the great delight of the spectators attracted by this poster in a night session, hung during a round before turning into the Murcian’s demonstration. “I had big setbacks as I could do at the time,” Gasquet conceded at a press conference, admitting to having “seen himself winning this first set”.
A superb first set, then lights out
Twice, at 6-5 15-30 on opposing service, then at 5-5 in the tie-break, the Biterrois found himself two points from this mini-Grail. Its conquest would only have delayed the deadline. Because, as expected, the gas quickly ran out of fuel in the tank of “Richie”, whose body language, based on grimaces of suffering, has never lied throughout a career started in 2002, a year before the birth of Alcaraz. Opposite, the latter displayed impeccable posture and appearance throughout the match. A worthy contrast from an old sketch from Les Inconnus.
“I had sensations on the court, I wasn’t dead, I didn’t feel grotesque,” confessed the now 131st in the world, after leaving the Top 100 on Monday, which he had occupied for 956 weeks (only Federer and Nadal have done better to date). I didn’t come for nothing. I still felt like a tennis player. »
Gasquet did not want to insult the future, even if he admitted without surprise: “maybe I won’t play here again”. And elsewhere ? “We’ll see how the season goes, if I manage to pick up a little bit. » After having experienced the exhilaration of the summits (or not far away), attending the dreary Challengers tournaments where former glories who have not yet mourned their careers rub shoulders with young people who have died of starvation in a certain anonymity has the air of nasty hangover.
While Gaël Monfils, qualified for the second round in Melbourne, is enjoying his Indian summer, the other “Musketeers” (Gilles Simon, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga), admittedly slightly older, have already put away their rackets. For the former world number 7, it is probably only a matter of months. A final lap at Roland-Garros, facing his friend and eternal tormentor Rafael Nadal, that would be quite a challenge, right?