By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
It may be an exhibition match, but the two biggest Spanish stars in the sport of lawn tennis right now just duked it out during the Netflix Slam tournament on March 4, 2024, held in Las Vegas, USA.
In front of an energetic crowd at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, Carlos Alcaraz gave his all to edge living legend Rafael Nadal- 3.6, 6.4, 14-12- and picked up a much-needed momentum heading to the ATP Indian Wells Masters tournament.
Alcaraz and Nadal kicked off the match with calm exchanges with the main aim of entertaining the thousands in attendance but as the game went further, both top tennis aces ramped up the intensity.
After several slow exchanges in their rally, those smiles quickly turned into game faces after Alcaraz saw himself trailing in the first set.
Nadal managed to break Alcaraz’s service possession twice and didn’t look back, holding his own last two serves to gain an early 1-0 lead.
In just a jiffy, Alcaraz entered the second set with a different approach and set the ‘exhibition mindset’ aside to level the game at 1-1.
From a conservative approach in the first set, Alcaraz played the exhibition match like a Grand Slam tournament, unleashing his signature down-the-line forehand bombs and asserting his court mastery over Nadal.
During the deciding third set, Nadal held a slim 7-6 lead after an Alcaraz error but the younger star scored two straight points to regain the lead.
Nadal continued to fight back and prolonged the tiebreaker with help from several unforced errors by Alcaraz but the match ended in a spoiler after the 22-time Grand Slam champion shot an outside forehand ball.
Both tennis stars just started their preparations for the upcoming 2024 French Open which will start from late May to early June.
