Murcia, Jul 6 (EFE) that of Roger Federer, already retired, and he is following in the footsteps of Rafa Nadal.
The young tennis player from Murcia, at 20 years old number 1 in the world, continues to be firm in staging the ‘major’ and, after successfully beating Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-0, 6-2 and 7-5 in the first round of Wimbledon, will face in the second this Friday also Frenchman Alexandre Muller, who beat his compatriot Arthur Rinderknech 7-6 (5), 1-6, 6-3 and 6-4.
It will be the first duel between Muller, 26 years old and number 84 in the international ranking, and Alcaraz.
The man from El Palmar, who so far has won 30 of the 38 matches he has played in the big four -Australia, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the United States- and won the US Open last year, always happened when he played in the second round, something that he could not do Djokovic in his early days.
Not surprisingly, the Serbian, who presents a 350-47 in the big ones, only lost in the first round of a tournament of this level twice and it happened specifically in his first tournament of this category -Australia 2005 against the Russian Marat Safin by 6- 0, 6-2 and 6-1- and in the fifth -Australia 2006 against the American Paul Goldstein 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 and 6-2.
The man from Belgrade faces the 71st Grand Slam of his career in London and of the 70 already completed he won 23, the most -10 in Australia, 7 at Wimbledon and 3 at Roland Garros and in the United States-.
For his part, the Swiss Roger Federer, retired last year with a record of 369-60 in the ‘major’, fell in his first two Grand Slam appearances in the first round, at Roland Garros 1999 against Australian Patrick Rafter by 5 -7, 6-3, 6-0 and 6-2 and at Wimbledon 1999 against the Czech Jiri Novak 6-3, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3 and 6-4.
Far ahead in this particular statistics appears the Mallorcan Nadal, 314-43, who, takes the cake and left a record difficult to achieve since he lost at the first exchange in his tournament of the highest level number 35, specifically in Wimbledon 2013 against the Belgian Steve Darcis 7-6 (4), 7-6 (8) and 6-4.
Alcaraz, also very reliable in his starts since he became a professional, is on that path but he has a long way to go.