Riding solo in Doha, Nardi plots Alcaraz upset

Luca Nardi will hope to reconjure his penchant for an upset on Wednesday in Doha.

Last March, the Italian pulled off one of the shocks of the season by defeating then-World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in Indian Wells. Fast forward 11 months and Nardi has the opportunity to make headlines once again when he takes on top seed Carlos Alcaraz at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open.

“It’s not going to be easy, but I did it once with Novak,” Nardi told ATPTour.com in Doha. “I know that he didn't play the best match of his life, and I had an opportunity and I took it. Tomorrow it's going to probably be the same because Carlos won a tournament last week and he's always playing better and better, match by match, in a tournament. So it's not going to be that easy.”

Although it will be his maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting with Alcaraz, Nardi does have some experience taking on the Spaniard. However, that came long before Alcaraz took the ATP Tour by storm and became the youngest No. 1 in PIF ATP Rankings history.

“We played a couple times when we were kids,” recalled Nardi when asked about his history with his fellow 21-year-old Alcaraz. “We were 13 or 14, and he always won. I never beat him, never had a chance. When we were 14, 16, we played the same tournaments, but then he ‘grew up’ a bit earlier, so I didn’t have lots of chances to talk with him for years, but we are friends.

“The first time we played was maybe in Spain. He beat me easy. He was always playing every shot: drop shots, hitting hard. He's always been the same.”

Nardi earned his second ATP Tour victory of the season on Tuesday in Doha, where he downed Zhang Zhizhen (coincidentally also the player he beat the round before facing Djokovic in Indian Wells). He also reached an ATP Challenger Tour final in Koblenz earlier this month and is currently competing as the World No. 85, 15 places shy of his career high,

Round of 32, and the winners keep coming!🔥@Luca___Nardi | @nunoborges97 | @Boticvdz @QatarTennis | #QatarExxonMobilOpen pic.twitter.com/lDRDvXo59E

— ATP Tour (@atptour) February 18, 2025

Whatever Nardi has achieved this so far this season, he has done it without the help of a regular coach. The former Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF competitor is biding his time in a hiring process that has lasted more than three months as he aims to find someone that can help further his development.

“I have not had a coach since October and since then I have been trying to find someone, but I still didn't find the right one,” said Nardi. “I’m still looking around and I hope that I will find it soon. I play some tournaments alone, but at some tournaments and in the pre-season, some coaches that I know helped me. But I don't have a main coach, that's what I'm looking for.”

Competing on the ATP Tour is intense enough without a regular source of wisdom to help navigate the highs and lows, but even as his coach search continues, Nardi has plenty of ways he likes to relax. He is a keen follower of current Serie A-leading football team SSC Napoli, while he also holds a passion for motorbiking, largely due to the fact he shares a hometown — Pesaro on the Adriatic Coast — with MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi.

“Everyone rides motorcycles in Pesaro because of him. Everyone,” said Nardi. “Everyone in the city loves motorbikes. Everyone rides a motorbike. I never raced, though. I like to go not to the mountains [like many people], but along the coast. When it's a sunny day, I go with my dad, or even alone. I love to do it.”

Nardi may not be offered much chance to relax on court Wednesday when he goes toe to toe with Alcaraz, but he will hope that he can nonetheless rouse an upset against an ATP Tour great. Regardless of the fact he enters the match as an underdog, Nardi remains excited at the prospect of facing the 17-time tour-level champion Spaniard.

“For sure it's going be a really fun match for me, because I also want to test my level,” he said. “It's not that often that you play with the best players in the world. So it will be a fun match, but also [good] to understand what my level is.”