Alcaraz, Carreno Busta & WTA Players Serve In A New Way In Miami

Tennis players serve every day on the tennis court. But on Tuesday, Carlos Alcaraz led a quartet of ATP Tour and WTA Tour stars in serving food for the needy as part of Miami Open Unites.

Alcaraz, Pablo Carreno Busta, Paula Badosa and Ons Jabeur served lunch at the Miami Rescue Mission, which has existed for 100 years. The Mission provides food, shelter and programmes to guests in South Florida.

“It was pretty amazing. I’m so happy to be able to help,” Alcaraz said. “It’s good to do different things than tennis, so I’m really happy.”

One year ago on his Miami Open presented by Itau debut, Alcaraz was No. 132 in the ATP Rankings and still breaking onto the ATP Tour. Now the reigning Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals champion is a career-high World No. 16 and one of the tournament favourites in Miami.

Last week, the 18-year-old made the BNP Paribas Open semi-finals and pushed Rafael Nadal in a thrilling three-set semi-final. Alcaraz is excited to be back in Miami and continue his ascent.

“It’s amazing. I watched this tournament since I was a kid. It’s a pretty good tournament,” Alcaraz said. “Last year with the pandemic and Covid, it was a little bit different. But this year for sure it’s going to be a different year, different tournament. I’m really happy to be able to play here in Miami.”

^{Photo Credit: Andrew Eichenholz/ATP Tour}
The tennis stars served a lunch of meat, rice, beans and plantains. Carreno Busta ensured that all guests received a drink to go with their meal.

“We had the opportunity to do this kind of activity and are [happy] to be here,” Carreno Busta said. “This is our work also, so I think that we want to help as soon as we can and this activity is very important to these people [so they can] have lunch, to have dinner. I appreciate being here.”

This was Badosa’s first visit to an activity like this. The Spaniard called it a “very nice experience”.

“The people were very nice here. For me it’s very nice to do these kind of activities,” Badosa said. “I think it’s a part of our job as well to help each other. It’s very important and for me it’s very special to be here because I’m really a person that likes to help.”

Jabeur added that this was a reminder of how important it is to give back as soon as possible. The Tunisian hopes to do it more often.

“I’ve loved helping people from a very young age and as soon as I have the opportunity to, I can see those guests really needed help, so be able to provide this is unbelievable,” Jabeur said. “It’s a great feeling and it makes me very grateful for the life I have. You should not take anything for granted.”