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Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz no longer fight for your admiration but for the…
Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz no longer fight for your admiration but for the…
There was a time when the Rafael Nadal-Carlos Alcaraz rivalry had something artificial or, if you will, something of a local competition, a struggle of affections between the little Spaniards who idolized one and those who began to idolize the other . A generational duel, if you will, but circumscribed to our country and our sport. The idea that, after twenty years of Nadalismo, something else was coming to the cover of Marca o el Ace. The new boy who presented himself as the relay of affection and admiration.
That moment was short lived. How long it takes to see an entire tournament of Carlos Alcaraz, wow. At first, we were told about him, but we didn’t really know what the boy was about. There was talk of his work ethic, of his precocity… and the “new Nadal” thing was repeated so much that we imagined him dominating the clay court, topspinning balls like crazy, refusing to lose a point and much less a game. So, I insist, until we saw him play. And no, it wasn’t that: a furious competitor, Alcaraz shortened plays, had a prodigious right hand and played with his rival, letting go and letting him come .
He wasn’t as serious as Rafa, rather the opposite. He liked to like, which is something very normal at that age. And no, he was not a press artifice or a patch on our patriotism. He was a player of a colossal level. A quarterfinalist in the US Open, a winner in Miami, in Madrid, in the Godó… what began almost like a game, a healthy fight between two compatriots, is leading to an unexpected fight for the top of the ranking world.
Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz no longer fight for your admiration but for the…
In a strange year like few others – if Wimbledon had distributed points, Djokovic would still be number one in the world despite not playing in Australia or setting foot in North America -, both have arrived in mid-August as the first two of the ATP Race, it is In other words, they are the two players who have accumulated the most points so far this year, since January 1. To the point that, right now, at the time of writing this article, before the quarterfinals of the Cincinnati tournament, they are the only two who only depend on themselves to reach number one in the ranking: if one or another won the US Open, they would occupy that position.
We must insist that it has been a difficult year to evaluate due to everything that has happened to Djokovic and even to Medvedev since the sanctions on Russian players in certain tournaments were implemented. Proof of this is that Daniil is the number one with the fewest accumulated points since the changes in the 2009 ranking. Such a low score (6885 and may be less if he loses his next match in Cincinnati) makes the number of candidates for the ATP throne it multiplies. Whether that is good or bad will have to be decided by each one; now, a number one is a number one, it is not worth making objections or placing asterisks.
Since Nadal does not defend another point between now and the end of the season, it is normal that he is considered the favorite to succeed the Russian player. In the short term, we know that if he wins the US Open he will be number one because no one would get to 7630 points from him. He has the advantage of being the only one who doesn’t depend on what the others do in the final rounds of Cincinnati, something that Alcaraz does not. Before, we used to say that he was the other tennis player who depended on himself, but now we have to admit that this statement is somewhat tricky … and that is that the tournament he is playing is not over yet.
READ MORE: Novak Djokovic has received some good news as his chances of playing the next two Grand Slam tournaments remain up in the air.
Right now, that’s true, before the quarterfinals, no one would reach the 6830 points with which he would finish the US Open if he won it (Nadal, at most, would be a finalist and would keep the same 6830 points). Now, things can happen in between. He could lose tonight against Norrie and Medvedev could win his match and that calculation would not count. Apart from the two Spaniards, as I said before, there are many candidates to be number one in the world : first of all, Medvedev himself. Something more difficult, but not impossible, is Tsitsipas, Ruud or even Auger Aliassime if he gets the Cincinnati-New York double.
Even Alexander Zverev is also in the mix, despite the fact that it is not at all clear that he can play the last grand slam of the season. If he doesn’t, in fact, he can drop down to number five or six in the world. In any case, these are almost anecdotes. On Monday we will have a better idea of what awaits us in this fight, but the really important thing is that the two Spaniards, against all odds, are involved. One, when his time seemed past. The other, when he was yet to arrive. What was going to be a quiet succession has become a rivalry in the present tense. Welcome be.
Max Verstappen has once again claimed that he is the target of ‘British bias’ in the media after watching the fallout from his battle with Lando Norris. The three-time world champion’s defending was criticised by a number of drivers, including Lewis Hamilton.
Verstappen and Norris shared a titanic battle at the Circuit of the Americas last weekend, but the flashpoint came at Turn 12 as the Dutchman deployed a signature tactic, lunging deep into the corner to get to the apex first before running both himself and his title rival off the road.
Norris opted to keep his foot in and overtook the Red Bull driver around the outside, although this decision landed him a five-second time penalty that dropped him back behind Verstappen in the general classification. This sparked a major debate with other drivers – Hamilton included – calling for the FIA to take action and outlaw this style of defending.
Verstappen has been frustrated by this debate. Quizzed by Viaplay in Mexico on whether he’d like to see the rules changed, he replied: “No, not really. But I have the wrong passport.” Asked if he was referring to a British passport, he confirmed as much.
“Yeah, it’s the wrong country, on that aspect… with complaining” he replied. “I love my passport but on that aspect, I should have had a different passport, actually.” The Dutchman also complained of ‘British bias’ earlier this season following comments made by Adrian Newey.
When asked about the debate surrounding Verstappen’s on-track conduct, former title rival Hamilton was quick to point out that the Dutchman has been employing these tactics for some time, dating back to their no-punches-pulled fight in 2021.
“It’s always been a grey area, that’s why he’s got away with it for so long,” Hamilton explained ahead of the Mexican Grand Prix. “They probably need to make some adjustments for sure.
“Also, we do have inconsistencies through rulings, weekend in, weekend out, obviously depending on which years it is. I mean, as a sport, we do need to level up on all areas and if you look at other global sports, they have full-time refs, for example, and I’m sure that wouldn’t be a bad thing for our sport.
“I experienced it many times with Max, you shouldn’t be able to just launch the car on the inside and be ahead and then you go off and still hold your position. So, they need to definitely work on this.”
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$200M Jeff Gordon teams up with Chase Elliott and Co. to decode the HMS driver behind the “Don’t judge me” old tweet
Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon teamed up with Chase Elliott and other HMS drivers in a lighthearted fun exercise for fans where they attempted to solve the mystery behind an old tweet from their current driver.
The anonymous tweet reads, “Don’t judge me, but I can’t wait to see the new twilight movie haha,” and it’s believed to belong to one of the HMS’s driver lineups, which includes Elliott, Kyle Larson, William Byron and Alex Bowman.
Jeff Gordan, who has a net worth of $200 million (according to Celebrity Net Worth), and HMS drivers tried to guess, but none of them were correct. Bowman and Elliott named Byron, while Byron went with Elliott, but it was Larson. He accepted that it was his tweet in 2011 and revealed that he likes Catherine Hardwicke’s Twilight movie.
HMS shared the video of the fun investigative activity on Instagram with a caption:
“Hold on tight, spider monkey”
Watch the Jeff Gordon and HMS’s guesses below:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBjQ7EzP3A7/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=e5182e01-3688-440a-ae00-0bf669973e15&ig_mid=01331E07-1F15-4C86-B3DB-7587302F0125
Three out of four HMS drivers are still in contention for the 2024 NASCAR Cup championship. Larson and Byron are in good position in the playoffs points table, with 35 and 27 points above the cutline.
However, 2020 Cup champion Elliott is in danger of getting eliminated from title contention, as he’s 53 points behind the cutline heading to this weekend’s Homestead-Miami race.
In an interview with NBC Sports earlier this season, Jeff Gordon spoke about the competition between their two best drivers, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott, for the regular season championship. Gordan wanted to see both top drivers perform well and race aggressively against each other while maintaining sportsmanship in their chase for the regular season title.
However, neither Larson nor Elliott won the championship; it was Tyler Reddick who clinched the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series regular season championship. Speaking to NBC Sports, the four-time NASCAR Cup champion Jeff Gordon said:
“I think it’s pretty clear at Hendrick how we expect teams and drivers to race against one another and how they’ve got to go and compete not only against their competitors but against one another.
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“Kyle Busch is an a**”: Brad Keselowski publicly chastised his fierce NASCAR rival in front of over 150,000 spectators
Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski birthed one of the fiercest rivalries in NASCAR. The duo had multiple run-ins throughout their careers, but the seed of their feud was sown at the 2010 Xfinity Series race hosted by the Bristol Motor Speedway. In the aftermath, Keselowski publicly castigated Busch in front of over 150,000 fans during driver introductions.
Busch kicked off his Food City 250 from third place in his #18 Toyota while Keselowski began in 13th. However, as the 250-lap battle inched closer to its conclusion, the then-Penske Racing driver held the domination while the former #18 Joe Gibbs Racing driver fought hard for the lead.
After struggling to overtake for nearly a dozen laps, Busch, with 31 laps until the checkered flag dropped, lunged ahead of Keselowski, only to be wrecked from behind and lose the spot again.
However, the JGR driver quickly retaliated and spun out Keselowski’s #22 Dodge. The move propelled the #18 Toyota to the victory lane while the Penske driver fell from a potential win to settling in 14th place.
The bitter feeling inside Brad Keselowski surfaced during the Bristol Cup Series race driver introductions the following day. After Kyle Busch introduced himself, his fierce rival took the mic and blasted Busch with his “a**’ comment.
“Brad Keselowski, driver of the Penske Racing Dodge. Kyle Busch is an a**,” he said.
However, when asked why he slammed Busch, Keselowski said that Juan Pablo Montoya challenged that he can’t call the JGR driver an “a**”. It’s worth mentioning that the crowd’s roar on the Penske driver’s introduction notched 104.2 decibels.
“Sometimes you just don’t like a guy”: Kyle Busch publicly slams Brad Keselowski during their 2017 title fight
The bitter rivalry between Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski was such that both made unapologetic comments about the other from time to time. Despite the latter publicly extending an olive branch to the former in 2015, their relationship remained sour.
Max Verstappen addresses ‘British bias’ at Mexican GP after Lewis Hamilton put-down
$200M Jeff Gordon teams up with Chase Elliott and Co. to decode the HMS driver behind the “Don’t judge me” old tweet
