let's see what's coming

Lmao actually they do have a carlos animal plushie this year (and even for novak and roger!) but I’m afraid the meaning underlying them is a CN specific thing because of their nicknames in Chinese fans:

Roger: “The Cow” because of the cow he was gifted in a Swedish tournament.

Novak: “The Chicken”. When Novak was young, coming after to challenge Roger, our newspaper called him a “fried young chicken” (当红炸子鸡）which is a phrase to describe a rising star. So in China Novak always has the chicken as his nickname.

on the other hand, carlos in spain isn't a star with capital s. he's a famous athlete, a great tennis player. but he doesn't carry the same degree of importance and stardom in the public's collective imagination as jannik does in his home country

this is partly because spanish football captures most of the attention (football players are the real stars of this country). and partly because spain has known what it is to have a tennis legend already. we had nadal

I believe that if nadal had never existed, carlos would be perceived as a greater phenomenon. it feels like, for many people here, there are two bars carlos has to clear to deserve their admiration: one is tangible — the historical tennis achievements he's been accomplishing. the other is abstract — he has to surpass what nadal meant to spain. what he is as a symbol in the collective imagination

there's a kind of distrust towards carlos. a desire to compare him to nadal not only as a tennis player but as a person. to constantly remind everyone: "no le llega ni a la suela de los zapatos" — that's a comment you can count on finding in almost every post about carlos, no matter the content. it's a spanish expression, the literal translation is "he doesn't even reach the sole of his shoes". he doesn't hold a candle to him, he could never be on his level — you get the idea