First things first: It’s not a Slam! Sunday’s live-streamed showdown between 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal and two-time Slam champion (and second-ranked player in the world) Carlos Alcaraz might be amazing, and should be entertaining—but as it’s being held inside an arena at Las Vegas’s Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino and not part of Wimbledon or the Australian, French, or US Opens, it has as much to do with an actual Slam as Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl has to do with the Super Bowl.
That said, Netflix—already behind the tennis reality series Break Point, by the same team who put together Drive to Survive—is pulling out all the stops in the hopes of making this exhibition a proper spectacle. Aside from the location, which places it firmly in a lineage of Vegas sports-hype landmarks that range from Evel Knievel’s ill-fated 1967 attempt to jump the fountains at Caesars Palace to this year’s Taylor Swift-infused Super Bowl, they’ve called in Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick, Jim Courier, Mary Joe Fernández, and Patrick McEnroe for commentary and play-by-play.
But will the match live up to that hype? Here’s hoping. The signs in favor are obvious, with Nadal being one of the sport’s absolute legends, possessed with a beyond-fierce determination to simply never allow himself to lose a match (he holds a 2-1 advantage over Alcaraz in their meetings thus far), while Alcaraz has, in the last season or so, shown himself to be Nada’s—if not all of top-tier tennis’s—heir apparent. (And if you’ve somehow not seen Alcaraz play with his particular brand of fury and intensity, well, fix that. It’s a thing to behold, even for the casual fan.) The players, both Spanish, are very friendly, and yeah, this is an exhibition match—but between them, their will to dominate on the court could probably power the neon signage on the Las Vegas Strip.
A cautionary note, though, that there’s no getting around: both players are nursing injuries—or, more specifically, both players are on the rebound from nursing injuries. Alcaraz, 20, sprained his right ankle on the first point of his first match at the Rio Open 10 days ago, but has been diligent about recovery and treatments, while the 37-year-old Nadal has suffered a smorgasbord of injuries throughout his career, most recently involving abdominal tears and knee problems. In short, handicapping this one—no pun intended—likely comes down to whoever’s healthier or more pain-free: age and speed favor Alcaraz, shotmaking and strategy would seem to favor Nadal. In any case, the real prize for both players in terms of points and rankings is next week’s BNP Paribas Open, a.k.a. Indian Wells—a fact that may ensure that both players use this match as a spirited warmup rather than a battle royale.