Last Thursday evening, four days before the opening round of the US Open Tennis Championship, Carlos Alcaraz spent a few minutes playing pickleball in a ballroom of the Lotte New York Palace in Midtown Manhattan. The 20-year-old Spaniard and current world No. 1 in men’s tennis was one of six players on hand (along with Venus Williams, Ons Jabeur, Holger Rune, Andrey Rublev and Tommy Paul) for the Palace Invitational, an annual promotional event hosted by the hotel where a few dozen guests and VIPs get to rub shoulders with pros ahead of the Open.

It was the first time for Alcaraz, who’s vaulted to the top of the men’s game over the past 12 months after winning his first Grand Slam at last year’s US Open and his second at Wimbledon in July. When Alcaraz entered the bar during the pre-pickleball cocktail hour, he could not get a step without being stopped for a selfie, while Rune, the 20-year-old Dane ranked No. 4 in the world, slipped past practically unnoticed. Alcaraz, in this room at least, was the player people had been waiting to see.

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