Earlier today, Rafael Nadal took part in a charity golf tournament to raise funds against breast cancer. The tournament, organized by the Clínica Menorca Foundation and now in its 24th edition, was held at the La Herrería golf course in the Madrid town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, also attended by Madrid’s mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida. It was Rafa’s first participation, a keen golf enthusiast, since retiring from tennis last year.

At the event, Rafa stated that his compatriot Carlos Alcaraz is having “an impressive career” at 22 years old, one that “seems to be heading toward something unique,” although he believes Alcaraz should not pressure himself because what he “has to do is enjoy the moment and have goals to keep improving.”

“Yes, he’s having an impressive career. He is a very special player, we’ve known that for years, but time keeps confirming it, and he is making what is already an impressive career even better,” Rafa told the press.

Our champ expressed that he was “very happy” for the young player from Murcia. “The truth is, having someone like him in Spain helps us to continue being a tennis reference country worldwide, which we have been for many years. And I don’t say this just because of me, it goes back much earlier. Carlos gives continuity to this whole era of successes, not only in tennis, but also in sport in general,” he emphasized.

In this regard, he believes that the player from El Palmar “can obviously” reach his 22 Grand Slam titles or those of the ‘Big Three,’ which Rafa formed alongside Swiss Roger Federer and Serbian Novak Djokovic. “His career seems to be headed toward something unique. Hopefully, he can have a very long career, which is what he also needs to reach certain numbers, and hopefully injuries stay away and everything goes great for him,” Rafa warned.

“And well, let’s leave him be. He has six, which is an incredible number at his age, and hopefully he gets as many as he can,” Rafa added. Regarding Federer’s advice to Alcaraz to think five years ahead, he clarified that he didn’t see that timeframe as “short-term.” “Five years is a lot, and especially in tennis, where things can change drastically at any time,” he pointed out.

“I think, in the end, what he has to do is enjoy the moment, which is brilliant, and keep working to meet objectives, to keep improving, and train every day with the excitement of being better at something. Even if you’re the best in the world, there’s always room for improvement, and that’s the daily motivation. I would enjoy each day and then see how everything evolves. Obviously in life goals are very important, and you must have them in the short, medium, and slightly longer term, but I never worked on a five-year basis,” he said.

The 22-time Grand Slam champion also wanted to avoid comparisons between the rivalry of the ‘Big Three’ and that of Alcaraz with Italian Jannik Sinner. “We were who we were, and that’s it. In the end, everyone has to live their own story, each story is different, and there’s no need to be comparing all the time. What we had was an era of three players who changed, just a little bit, the numbers that had existed until then,” Rafa clarified.

Source: EFE