Carlos Alcaraz shines in the Laver Cup with a decisive counterball against Taylor Fritz

That action, that counterball coming from behind and on a guy who is 1.96, explains a lot of things. Maybe it explains everything. Where the vast majority of tennis players contemplate an abyss, Carlos Alcaraz sees a terrain of opportunities and invents: this way? over there? Or perhaps on the side? Why wouldn't you give it a try, right? Will you dare? In that short period, time freezes (for him) and those in front of him tremble. They fear it. And there goes the Murcian, convinced and precise, unraveling a perfect parabola that avoids the stretched silhouette of Taylor Fritz, tenth in the world, and achieving a wonderful point that makes this Saturday's night visit to the O2 - this time, practically full stands - worth it.

His tennis is so captivating that even so, lurching and after having almost defeated him, watching his matches translates into a hypnotic exercise that, at times, makes the observer forget about the score. The game for the sake of the game, enjoy for the sake of enjoying. However, the evening is once again favorable: 6-3, 4-6 and 13-11, in 1h 50m. If the previous night he had scored a victory in the doubles, on this occasion Alcaraz had another joy in the individual modality of this Laver Cup in which his team, Europe, would have been in a compromised situation if he had not resolved his commitment. Before, Alexander Zverev (2-6, 7-6(5) and 11-9) and Flavio Cobolli (6-3, 2-6 and 10-7 for Learner Tien) had lost.

"It's part of my game, I use it to my advantage. The percentage has been very high," he reasons at the foot of the court when Sam Querrey, with the knot still in his stomach, asks him how the hell he throws those drop shots in those delicate moments and where all that inventiveness comes from: "I did it since I was little."

Fritz snorts and the captain of the other team, Andre Agassi, can't quite believe it even though he, the pronation-footed artist, also oozed talent from all sides. Have you done it? Indeed, it has done so. When he was up to his neck in water, all that imagination and that gunpowder came together perfectly to save the two match points that the American had in the tiebreaker. Before that happens, an Alcaraz comes and goes, with punch and at the same time imprecision. Curvilinear: 5-1 it was going, and then the sweats. A great first set and a second in which it was difficult for him to resist the angled ball of Fritz, a discreet guy who, if he believed it a little more, would surely go much further.

However, this lack of faith is inversely proportional to the overflowing confidence of the Spaniard, to whom you give a little and he has a party. After all, this is what the Laver Cup is about, an informal and casual competition in which a good photo matters more than any result. Remember: Prague, 2017, and Nadal on the back of the creator Federer, today in the stands, or the two crying their eyes out five years later, 2022, because the Swiss was saying goodbye. Now RF watches the Murcian and enjoys it, and hence, in a survey posed by the organization among the players, everyone agrees: If you were 10 years old, who would you have a poster of in your room today?

Zverev: "Probably Carlos, everyone loves him." Roddick: "Even today, at 44, I choose him." And McEnroe agrees: "He does everything. And his smile makes me jealous..." There is full, only he differs: "Djokovic. He is still playing...".