Carlos Alcaraz in action at the 2021 US Open
Carlos Alcaraz will make his debut against Romania’s Marius Copil on Friday
Following Carlos Alcaraz’s performances in Rio, many around the globe are nicknaming him ‘Baby Rafael Nadal’. Alcaraz didn’t disappoint, as he went on to have a hugely successful year on the ATP Challenger circuit.
He is now set to make his debut for Spain in the Davis Cup on Friday. He will be playing against Romania’s Marius Copil.
Alcaraz will enter this game with a lot of momentum behind him, which he will look to build on to ensure easy qualification to the finals for Spain.
On the other hand, Copil comes into the Davis Cup tie as a relative unknown and as the heavy underdog. The Romanian is mostly active on the Challenger tour, where he has a 4-3 win-loss record in the year.
He is currently ranked 261st in the world, Copil has a career-high ranking of World No. 56 and has some experience on the big stage. The 31-year-old reached two tour-level finals in Basel and Sofia back in 2018.
This will be the first time these two will be going against each other. Alcaraz is in red hot form and given his strengths on clay and the recent improvements that he has made to his game, it will be very hard for the Romanian to even win a set against Alcaraz, leave alone the match.
Marius Copil is a 31-year-old Romanian professional tennis player playing on the ATP World Tour and ATP Challenger Tour. He is a member of the Romanian Davis Cup team and is known for his extremely fast, powerful, and consistent serve.
In May 2010, Copil reached his first ATP Challenger Tour final at the Trofeo Paolo Corazzi as a qualifier. On his route to the final he won in three sets against Australian Bernard Tomic in the semifinals and finished runner-up to German Denis Gremelmayr.
Season 2011 started well for Copil. He reached his second Challenger final at the event in Kazan, Russia
In season 2012, Copil beat world No. 13 Martin Cilic in the first round at the China Open in Beijing
He made his Grand Slam main draw debut at the 2015 Australian Open, where he defeated Pablo Andujar. At the same tournament, he recorded the fastest serve at a Grand Slam: 242.0 km/h (150.4 mph)
Copil reached the 2019 Australian Open second round for the second time defeating Marcel Granollers in straight sets. As a result he reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 56 on 28 January 2019.
His best showing in doubles at a Grand Slam in his career was reaching the third round of the 2019 French Open partnering Rohan Bopanna. He also reached the second round of the 2019 US Open for the first time in his career in singles and doubles.
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