Despite the news that Carlos Alcaraz had to withdraw from this year’s edition of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, it felt like he had been in Rome already as everyone was talking about him. This did not leave fellow players out and, during the interviews that anticipate the debut of most top stars, plenty words were spoken about this rising star in the world of tennis.

Most notably, Novak Djokovic, who fell by the hands of the Spaniard just days ago in Madrid, was not short of compliments: “he’s breaking a lot of records as a teenager, you know, winning two Masters events this year, a couple of 500s. So far he’s the best player in the world, no question, this year with the results that he’s been doing. The way he was dealing with the pressure, I mean, in our match few days ago, how calm he was all the way till the entity, was impressive. He deserved to win the trophy. Everything about his game is really impressive. He’s a really complete player, can play equally well offensively and defensively. He’s the talk of the sport”.

Contrary to some, Rafael Nadal was not surprised by his winning run in Madrid: “Nothing new in my opinion. He already won in Miami, won in Barcelona. Honestly it is not a big surprise. Happy for him. Everybody knows the amount of confidence he has right now, the level that he can reach. I am happy because we have an amazing player in our country for a lot of years to come. It’s always special to win at home. Have been probably very special week for him”.

Stefanos Tsitsipas was not one of Alcaraz’s ‘victims’ in Madrid, but he had to surrender to the 19-year-old twice already this season. Despite that, he has decided to take the positives out of those losses and learn from his opponent: “His tennis is very impressive. I think he puts a lot of energy into every single shot. He is quick. He has a good reaction time. He reads the game well. He inspires me a lot. I really want to be like him. I look up to him.”