SEATTLE - Two tennis players that have grown used to compete for Grand Slams will compete for a different type of "slam" at the Netflix Slam, a match between Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaráz set to take place in Las Vegas, Nevada, Sunday March 3.
The Netflix Slam is the second installment of Netflix's efforts to venture into the world of live sports, after their November 'The Netflix Cup' with Formula 1 and professional golfers partaking in the event. This time around, 22-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal will face fellow countryman Carlos Alcaráz, the youngest male ever to reach the ATP's No.1 ranking at just 19 years old.
Following a successful first attempt with The Netflix Cup, the streaming company giant has prepared a star-studded team for its second-ever live sports event, with play by play and on and off the court commentary from Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick, Jim Courier, Mary Joe Fernández and Patrick McEnroe. The game will also stream live as a dual broadcast in Spanish, with Feliciano López and David Ferrer calling the game in Spanish.
The exhibition match, set to take place at the Michelob ULTRA Arena at Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada, will be the fourth chapter in the Nadal-Alcaráz rivalry and the first time they face each other almost two years. Two of the previous three matchups between the Spaniards happened at the ATP Masters 1000 in Madrid. The 37-year old leads the head-to-head with two victories over Alcaráz's lone victory in May of 2022, also in Madrid.
Two legendary tennis players that sadly are in opposite sides of their careers, 37-year-old Nadal made his debut in professional tennis in 2001, two years before Alcaráz was born. Since then, he was won a total of 22 Grand Slam titles, the second-most by a man in the history of the sport behind Novak Djokovic's 24 Grand Slams.
With the inspiration of surpassing Nadal, Carlos Alcaráz rose to tennis elite in 2022 by winning the US Open. That day, Alcaráz became the youngest man in history to be ranked No.1 in the world, doing so at the age of 19 years and 129 days. When he lifted the US Open trophy, he also became the 7th youngest to win a Grand Slam.
The Netflix Slam is another step for Netflix in their attempt to offer live sports to their more than 200 million subscribers worldwide. Just a few weeks ago, the streaming company completed a 10-year deal with WWE to stream its weekly show Raw. Valued at more than $5 billion, the WWE-Netflix agreement will see the streaming giant pick up other major WWE properties such as SmackDown, WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Royal Rumble, between others.
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