The ITF's Katrina Adams stays on the front lines for women with the Tory Burch Foundation Sports Fellowship

Not content to simply be the best young star in plain old tennis, Carlos Alcaraz looks to have picked up another racquet sport in between his winning start at the Hamburg European Open.

The 19-year-old Spaniard shared photos from a lower-stakes table tennis match after narrowly surviving his opening round against German Nicola Kuhn, and showed a markedly improved flick of the wrist for his second match against Filip Krajinovic, solving the Serb in straight sets.

“A cuatros!” Alcaraz Instagrammed after the 7-6 (4), 6-3 victory, one that featured an unforgettable forehand winner:

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ICYMI 👇

We’re still waiting on the speed gun to tell us how fast this forehand was 😯@carlosalcaraz #HamburgOpen pic.twitter.com/nl11gct5so
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) July 21, 2022

The top seed is in search of his first ATP title since scoring back-to-back wins over Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic en route to winning the Mutua Madrid Open—his second Masters 1000 victory of 2022 after first lifting the Miami Open trophy in April. Arriving in Paris as a heavy favorite to capture his first major title, he took a shock loss to Alexander Zverev and exited in the fourth round of Wimbledon to Jannik Sinner.

Alcaraz will next face No. 7 seed Karen Khachanov in a rematch of their fourth-round encounter at Roland Garros, which the teenager won in straight sets.

But the question remains: how would Khachanov’s extreme forehand grip translate to ping pong?

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