The 2023 NFL Week 3 Roundup | The Way of Carlos
Postres Reina is the third largest Spain-based confections company in the world and is well-known throughout the Iberian country for its popular puddings, yogurts and candies. Alongside its traditional offerings, the company’s inspired sponsorship in 2013 of a then unknown (and green, though promising, 10 year-old) powerhouse-in-the-making has taken on mythic proportions as a key ingredient in thrusting to the forefront in 2023 the likely successor to the tired troika of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. His name is Carlos Alcaraz, and at just 20 years of age, has uproariously upstaged his contemporaries and single-handedly reimagined the tactical assault that a tennis racket and an imaginative mind can wield. Rocketing from beyond the top 100 to #1 in just 16 months, Carlos has heads pivoting on swivels faster than his 121.3 mph service promises. It is said that luck is where opportunity and preparation intersect. Carlos teems with all of the above as he blazes into the record books and establishes himself as a generational talent who is having just as much fun as his perpetual smile portrays, preternatural success trailing closely behind. With a racket as fast as his feet, how sweet it is.
The story of Carlos’ ascent couldn’t have been authored without his grandfather. His grandfather’s fateful decision to redevelop an anachronistic Spanish hunting club into a swimming and tennis complex set the stage perfectly for destiny to play out. Infatuated with the romance and distinction of red clay, the Spanish would accept no other substitute when it came to tennis playing surfaces. So in came clay tennis courts. Atop these very courts, Carlos’ father learned to play the game and went on to become one of Spain’s best players in the process. He pulled the plug on his own professional ambitions at just 20 years old, yielding to the merciless financial burden of competing at a professional level. He instead found steady income, worth and comfort in taking on a role as a tennis coach and club administrator at the very complex his father had redeveloped. His head nodded in affirmation that he’d chosen the right path soon after when his second of four sons, Carlos, quietly picked up a kids tennis racket and playfully volleyed balls against a brick wall. At 3 years old.
After work, Carlos some years later begged his father for court time, coaching lessons and help. And so Carlos’ father carved out time, oftentimes stretching past dinnertime and well past bedtime, to shape and hone his son’s auspicious tennis skillset. Together they worked on every aspect of Carlos’ took kit: offense, defense, baseline heat, net finesse, firey service, explosive forehand and backhand. And a technique best developed on the nuance of clay, the art of the drop shot (where a power shot is disguised, deployed tactically from the baseline, sending the ball lofting gently through the air with killer topspin before falling like a rain drop just past the net forcing opponents to scramble — defensively and usually unsuccessfully — forward before a second bounce). This drop shot, which Carlos would continue to refine and make his signature for the next decade, would ultimately go on to become one of his prime weapons and set off an arms race in caricature.
By age 10, Carlos had been drawing the attention of other professional coaches at the complex. Lopez Rueda, CEO of sweets company Postres Reina and an amateur tennis player himself who volleyed at the club, heard word of Carlos’ burgeoning talent and insisted open seeing the rumors for himself. Gob smacked, Lopez knew Carlos possessed the sheer faculties of a tennis athlete well beyond his years. But Carlos’ family lacked the financial resources needed to get to the next level. Lopez, seeing brilliance, loaned the family 2000 euros so that Carlos could travel to a tournament where he ended up vanquishing competitors each taller, stronger and older. It was a no brainer for Lopez’s company to then fully sponsor Carlos. This sponsorship afforded Carlos professional-caliber coaching, custom rackets and travel to the most formatively competitive teenage tournaments around. Just three years later, IMG, signed the 13 year old phenom. In 2016. The IMG signing opened the door to his current coach (and former #1 pro) Juan Carlos Ferrero. The rest is history. Carlos debuted on the ATP in 2020 at 16 where he exited in the second round. By 2021, he’d become the youngest in men’s singles history at the Australian Open and the youngest match winner ever at the Madrid Open. He bubbled under the surface at the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open before exploding in 2022. At the Madrid Open, he defeated such no-names as Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokavic to claim his fourth title of the season. At Wimbledon, he lost in the fourth round. At the US Open a month and change later, Carlos would go on to famously defeat 5 seed Casper Ruud and capture the title. And with the hardware came his official seeding at #1 in the world. At 19. By 2023, a French Open loss in the final to Novak Djokovic was met with a resounding and surprising Wimbledon coronation months later when Carlos unseated the legend in five sets. Carlos has been barreling forth ever since. At 20 and racing for the stars.
Lately, Carlos has traded in his seminal Postres Reina sponsorship for the likes of Nike, Babolat raquets, Rolex, BMW, Calvin Klein and Louis Vuitton. The new wares suit his strengths as the vanguard of a new generation of players who press every inch of the court, not relying unilaterally on the safety, power and boredom of aggressive baseline play. A high-powered first serve paired with a variable second service live alongside Carlos’ athletic sprints affording complete court coverage and exceptional, assured lateral movement. Beyond all else, Carlos’ deft touch keeps competitors guessing and onlookers enthralled. Especially when he deploys his now trademark drop shot; a technique that’s been adopted across the board of late. Further burnishing his reputation is Carlos’ warm accessibility, astute professionalism and youthful relatability. You can see it when he plays; you can feel it when he wins or loses; he’s just having FUN. Which just adds to the mystique and reverence Carlos has well-earned. He’s the standard-bearer of an electric new generation of tennis players who include such buzzy American contemporaries as Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Francis Tiafoe and Ben Shelton. Not bad company with which to discover where opportunity and preparation meet. Match point.
As we look to Week 3, plenty of electricity, headscratching and buzz to go around. Case in point: the Broncos travelled to Miami where the proverbial mercy rule was invoked such was the stinging magnitude of embarrassment and loss. A 20–70 final score will do that; just as it takes an emotional toll on a team’s psyche. At 0–3, Denver is all kinds of calamitous disaster right now beginning with an unrecognizable Russell Wilson who seems to be rusting in place. The calcification is doing little to inspire greatness around him as the team circles the 2023 drain — in late September. Miami, conversely, is firing on all cylinders. The Fins can do no wrong as they blast through yet another offensive high-water (and six decade record) mark at just Week 3. QB Tua Tagovailoa’s 2023 pliancy with any of his receiving core is a remarkable sight to be seen, and a vast improvement over his 2022 inconsistent self. MIA’s Defense, too, bulldoze forward of their own concerted accord and are rewarded with the AFC’S sole remaining perfect record. Over in Phoenix-adjacent Glendale, the Cards rose unexpectedly (and delightfully to ARI fans) from the ashes and to the occasion where the visiting Cowboys were left with little more than an empty reflection. DAL was heavily favored in the contest with the mere production and momentum on tap from weeks 1 and 2, but yielded to red lights in the red zone and simply failed to connect the readily apparent dots. The team’s usually bulletproof DEF suffered from a case of swiss cheese against a team not particularly known to poke fingers in eyes, particularly defensive ones. ARI escapes with a much-needed WIN while DAL licks is wounds and repairs hopefully-cosmetic damage.
Back east in Jersey, the Jets Zach Wilson experiment is quickly reaching groan-inducing, stomach-upsetting levels of derision. Zach’s level of play is simply not sustainable for a Team rolling with two Ls in a row. The much talked about Aaron-Rodgers-taking-Zach-under-his-wing narrative on this HBO’s Hard Knocks shows little evidence of pullthrough in the regular season, sadly. It could have afforded a fairytale ending, instead NYJ fans are trapped in an inescapable nightmare. For their part, the opposing Pats and QB Mac Jones showed some spark. Likely still not nearly good enough in a Conference that includes the Fins and the Bills. And speaking of the Bills, WOW what a welcome return to form with their commanding victory over WAS at FedEx Field, 37–3. A more recognizable Josh Allen, his offensive line and a more-typical BUF DEF each did their part to pick through the Commanders carcass. Which left WAS fans wondering when sunny skies will reveal good fortune for a team perpetually held up as the League punching bag AND punchline.
In our Round Robin, the 49ers continue with their perfect record in the NFC West propelled by another solid Brock Purdy outing. At SF’s hands, the Giants take the L, 12–30. For NY fans, misery loves company. BTW, what’s come of Tennessee? The Brownies hosted then roasted the Titans, 27–3, to a firey crisp. Quite the comedown for a Team that presided atop the AFC South just two years ago. We’ll look past the bonfire-in-a-bad-way that was their 2022 Season. The (s)crappy Lions pummeled ATL, the Chargers FINALLY threw one up on the board against the hapless Vikings, Jordan Love found continued love and adoration with a literal come-from-behind 18–17 WIN against steely NOLA, the Ravens incredibly were pinned under Indy hoofs in a stinging OT loss while the Bears showed up in KC only to be shown the door AND were upstaged by a VERY high profile Taylor Swift appearance that went viral quickly on Sunday. Typical. KC TE Travis Kelce hyper-extends his knee in the pre-Season, misses the first three weeks (and counting) and apparently gains in the process a companion in pop’s reigning princess, Taylor Swift. NFL athletes. More proof they’re NOT just like you and me. And just another week in the wacky world of the NFL.
