There’s a clip doing the rounds of a Carlos Alcaraz and Holger Rune playing doubles as young teenagers.
Their Croatian opponents, who look like rabbits in the headlights, didn’t stand a chance against two of the best players of the next generation, albeit two who played the doubles like the singles they are, each trying to go for every shot. Whatever the approach, the result of the match was still inevitable.
For the first time at Wimbledon, two male players under the age of 21, Alcaraz and Rune, will battle it out in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.
The pair are rising to the top of their sport at exactly the same time and are separated by less than a week in age (Rune marginally the older). They have understandably become rivals but also close friends in their nascent careers having first faced each other as 11-year-olds.
After beating Grigor Dmitrov in four sets on Monday, Rune talked of plotting a one-off whereby he and Alcaraz might be able to once again pair up for a doubles reunion.
Of their match-up, Rune said: “To be able to play a quarter-final against a player that is your same age, at the top of the ranking, feels amazing. I’m really looking forward to that match. I even looked at it when I was in the first round.
“I couldn’t really afford to look at it because there are so many matches before this would eventually happen. Now we’re here so I’m really pumped and excited for it. It shows that the young players are doing a great job. For me, it’s cool. For him, it’s also cool I guess.”
The two 20-year-olds look perhaps the least likely of anyone to derail Novak Djokovic, as arduous a task as that might be. Rune has already beaten Djokovic this season at the Italian Open.
Alcaraz looked impressive in dismantling the big-serving game of Matteo Berrettini in Monday’s last match on Centre Court winning 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 to set up his last-eight encounter with Rune.
The Spaniard said he still clearly recalled them first playing against each other at under-12 level. With the stakes infinitely higher this time, he said: “We shared a lot of great moments. We knew each other really well. I’m really excited about this match. I think he’s the same.”
Of the players left in the draw, perhaps Rune and Alcaraz pose the biggest threat to Djokovic’s hegemony. Alcaraz had been talked about as the likely French Open champion with Djokovic struggling for his best form in the build-up only to be mentally and physically broken down in their semi-final, cramping his way out of the tournament.
Rune has a rare psychological advantage of the players on tour in the fact that he boasts the upper hand over the world No2 in recent times. He knocked him out of the quarter-finals of the Italian Open in May having done so at the Paris Masters in November. Admittedly, the odds of a repeat on his preferred grace surface are a tad slimmer.
Along with Djokovic, Alcaraz and Rune are two of the best runners in the game and both clearly remember their young doubles partnership at Les Petit As, essentially the world championship of tennis for under-14 players.
Rune remembers the same Alcaraz – passionate and energetic and naturally gifted – as he will be come the quarter-final.
As for the pairing back then, they made their way to the tournament semi-finals. For both, the target will be the same on Centre Court.
