The great boxer and even greater philosopher Mike Tyson said this sentence that can be quoted forever when it comes to the impossibility of preparing for whatever life throws at you. “Everyone has a plan – until they get punched in the face.” Of course, such a sentence is all the more effective from Tyson’s mouth, because who can prepare to get one from him? As a goalkeeper: on Lionel Messi’s free-kick? As a tennis player: to a duel against Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz. With the former, the great tennis player and even greater philosopher Andy Roddick has already said what to expect: “First he takes your legs, then your soul.”
Alcaraz is fundamentally changing this sport with this dynamic, imaginative, powerful style of play. To be admired most recently in the Wimbledon final and in the final of Cincinnati, each against the leg and soul thief Djokovic. Of course, he now knows what it’s like to play against Alcaraz – but he doesn’t like to reveal it, because if he did, Alcaraz would find out and develop a completely new strategy for the next game. Yes, the best in tennis really are that paranoid and creative.
One would have liked to have asked Dominik Koepfer what it’s like to play against Alcaraz. After all, he played against the Spaniard at the US Open at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Tuesday evening – but it came to this: Everyone has a plan until they stretch their foot after a few minutes of a game.
Footwork intact: Carlos Alcaraz in the short match on Tuesday.
(Photo: Frank Franklin II/AP)
At the eighth rally, Koepfer twisted his ankle and had to be treated immediately. But this game turned into a farce – because, as the referee informed Heads: “The only reason I don’t give up after 20 minutes is because there are 20,000 people in the stadium.” It lasted for an hour and then it stopped. When the score was 2:6, 2:3, he gave up. According to Koepfer, the diagnosis was torn in the anterior collateral ligament in the left ankle, but nothing was broken. “I actually wanted to last at least two sets. It’s the greatest thing you can experience as a tennis pro: against the best in the world, in the biggest stadium in the world,” he said afterwards. “It was the coolest experience of my life – up until the debut in the first game. It kept getting worse, so I said to myself: one hour.”
In the past year and a half, Koepfer has repeatedly had to take a break, mostly because of injuries to his left hand. He only returned to the larger tournaments in the summer, and the results were impressive: quarter-finals in Atlanta, semi-finals in Los Cabos, third round at the preparatory tournament in Winston-Salem. He climbed to number 75 in the world rankings and is therefore automatically qualified again for the Grand Slam tournaments. In New York he then found out that he was playing against Alcaraz, night session in the largest tennis stadium in the world. A terrific experience that became a painful experience after a few minutes.
“Nothing is broken, I can walk – that’s the good news,” said Koepfer, who will have to pause for a few weeks. Alcaraz’s plan is quite different: he hopes to show every other day for two weeks that all his opponents have a plan against him – until they experience for the first time how he fends off a thunderous blow from them and plays back into the field, makes the next attacks and ends the rally with a sensitive stop.