Alcaraz a rising tennis star headed into French Open
It's been a quick rise for Carlos Alcaraz.
It wasn't long ago that the 19-year-old Spaniard was playing in youth tennis tournaments and talking about his idols Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, and about his dream of one day making it into the top 10 and winning the French Open and Wimbledon.
It was only a year ago that he broke into the top 120 for the first time and began making his way into the main tournaments.
Few at the time could predict what the future held for the young Spaniard. But come next week in Paris, Alcaraz will be among the favorites to win the French Open.
The Spaniard is tennis' newest sensation and the hottest player on tour this year, considered by many the successor of Nadal.
Alcaraz won the Madrid Open on Sunday for his tour-leading fourth title of the season, lifting the trophy after back-toback victories over Nadal, top-ranked Novak Djokovic and third-ranked Alexander Zverev.
“I remember the first time when I was playing, when I was a kid in (the Spanish city of) Murcia, and of course I didn't imagine at that moment that I was going to be able to reach this level, to be here right now, winning the Madrid Open,” he said.
Alcaraz is the second youngest player to reach the top 10 and second youngest to win two Masters 1000 tournaments. Only Nadal did both at a younger age in 2005 when he was 18.
“I can see him becoming big in a very short time,” fifth-ranked Stefanos Tsitsipas said. “I'd really like to get to the level he is right now. I think he's one of the best players in the world, to be honest. He has proved it with consistent results, thriving in the biggest tournaments. There is nothing you can take away from that.”
Alcaraz leads the tour with 28 victories this year, one more than Tsitsipas. His only three losses came against Sebastian Korda in Monte Carlo, Nadal in Indian Wells and Matteo Berrettini in the Australian Open.
He is the youngest player in the history of the ATP Tour to defeat three of the top five players at the same event, and the first to eliminate Nadal and Djokovic at the same clay-court event.
Djokovic and Nadal had only praise for the youngster, with Djokovic saying it was “impressive for somebody of his age to play so maturely and courageously.” Nadal said Spain should celebrate having “an amazing player for a lot of years to come.”
Alcaraz was on the front pages of most sports dailies in Spain on Monday, taking the main headlines even though Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid faced each other in the Spanish league derby on Sunday.
Denis Shapovalov overcame a point penalty and a hostile crowd to beat local hope Lorenzo Sonego 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-3 in the first round of the Italian Open on Monday.
Late in the second set, Shapovalov was given a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct after hopping over the net to show the chair umpire a mark on his opponent's side of the red clay court — which is not permitted.
The umpire determined that Shapovalov's serve was out, resulting in a double fault and a break point for Sonego. Then with the code violation, Shapovalov lost the game to trail 5-3.
Also, three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka enjoyed his first win in nearly 1 1/2 years by rallying past Reilly Opelka, also a semifinalist last year, 3-6, 7-5, 6-2.
Wawrinka recently returned to the tour after undergoing two foot surgeries last year.
In the women's tournament, 2020 champion Simona Halep beat Alize Cornet 6-4, 6-4; Victoria Azarenka defeated Viktorija Golubic 6-3, 6-0; and Coco Gauff eliminated Angelique Kerber 6-1, 6-4.
Kerber, who was formerly ranked No. 1, has lost six straight matches.
Ukrainian player Anhelina Kalinina extended her strong recent form by beating Madison Keys 6-4, 6-4.
Carlos Alcaraz and Naomi Osaka both withdrew from the tournament..
Mississippi St. may not make baseball playoffs
Defending national champion Mississippi
State, which has made it to the last three College World Series as one of the final eight teams standing, will be hard-pressed to even make an NCAA regional this year after losing three straight at home to Florida over the weekend.
Mississippi State (2523, 9-15 SEC) has lost five in a row and is last in the SEC West and 102nd in the RPI with conference series remaining against Texas A&M on the road and Tennessee at home.
MSU is in danger of becoming the fifth national champion since 2007, and first since Coastal Carolina in 2017, to not make the following NCAA Tournament.
• Oregon State has taken over the top ranking in two major polls, ending Tennessee's six-week run as the consensus No. 1.
D1Baseball.com still has the Volunteers (42-6) on top of its ratings after they dropped two of three at Kentucky for their first series loss of the season. Oregon State (38-9) is No. 2 after extending its win streak to six games with a sweep of Oregon. Oklahoma State (34-13) is No. 3 after a nonconference sweep of Southeast Missouri State ran the Cowboys' win streak to seven in a row.
Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball newspaper have Oregon State, Tennessee and Oklahoma State as their top three.
• Butler men's basketball coach Thad Matta landed his second big man in less than a week Monday, announcing the addition of 6-foot-11 Manny Bates from North Carolina State.
Brazil, Argentina to play makeup game
Brazil and Argentina lost their appeals to FIFA on Monday and will have to play the World Cup qualifying game that was abandoned last year in Sao Paulo amid chaos on the field caused by pandemic rule breaches.
In one of the most bizarre scenes during the qualifying program for the World Cup, Brazilian health officials came onto the field minutes after kickoff last September to dispute the quarantine status of some Argentina players.
Both countries easily qualified for the World Cup as the top two teams in the 10-nation South American group without needing to play the abandoned game. They took part in the draw last month for the final tournament, which is scheduled to be played from Nov. 21-Dec. 18 in Qatar.
However, the latest FIFA ruling means Brazil and Argentina seem sure to have to play their essentially meaningless 18th qualifying game, possibly in September.
Six cars were deliberately set ablaze a short distance from the soccer stadium where league leader Apollon Limassol played second-place APOEL Nicosia, Cypriot police said Monday.
Police said the arson attack occurred 30 minutes before the end of Sunday's match. Apollon won 3-2.
The trial of a pair of former 21st Century Fox Inc. executives and a sports marketing company on charges related to the U.S government investigation of corruption in soccer was postponed to Jan. 3.
Hernan Lopez and Carlos Martinez were charged in March 2020 as part of an alleged scheme related to rights to the Copa Libertadores soccer tournament, South America's club championship. The Uruguayan sports marketing company Full Play Group SA also was charged.Their trial in federal court in Brooklyn was to have started on May 23. U.S. District Judge Pamela K. Chen said Monday that prosecutors and the defendants had requested a delay because the government disclosed “a large volume of discovery materials.