Carlos Alcaraz has revealed the reason why he mimicked Rafael Nadal's trademark pose of biting into the trophy after winning the 2022 Madrid Open.
Alcaraz is having the season of his life highlighted by winning two Masters titles, the latest of which arrived from his home country. Having celebrated his 19th birthday during the week, he put a capstone to his campaign by winning the Madrid Open for the first time.
This week, the young Spaniard pulled off a major feat, which was to beat both Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in back-to-back clay-court matches. And for those who questioned whether he had any energy left in the tank to face Alexander Zverev in the final, then they were proven wrong.
Alcaraz brought so much intensity and aggression to the table that it limited the German's counterpunching abilities. In fact, Zverev barely laid a glove on the 19-year-old, who dropped only four games in a clinical performance.
With the victory, the man from Murcia became the youngest champion in Madrid Open history and the youngest since Nadal in 2005 to win multiple Masters 1000s. During the trophy presentation, Alcaraz rekindled the famous pose of biting the trophy, which is an emblematic celebration of Nadal.
That is a well-known pose that Rafael Nadal usually does when he's taking pictures with the trophies, but the young Spaniard later explained that it was not because he was inspired by his childhood idol but that he honored the photographers' request.
"I didn't want to bite the trophy but the photographers told me to. Some people will say it was because of Rafael Nadal, but the reason was the photographers."
Although Nadal is one of Carlos Alcaraz's idols, recently, an old video which resurfaced showed that his idol at the time was Roger Federer.