Carlos Alcaraz will be fine.
He can win many tour titles and Grand Slam tournaments. He should be a dominant force in his sport for the next decade, and possibly two.
Still, Alcaraz is nearing the end of his season for the third year in a row. Two years ago it was an injury. It was a brain fog that lasted until March of last year.
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Carlos Alcaraz has not won a title since Wimbledon. So what’s going on?
This year, he’s had a bit of both, since winning the China Open title and his third straight victory in a three-set classic over his biggest rival, Yannick Sinner. An insect entered his stomach and respiratory system. He also recognized the concentration and lack of fluidity on the smooth surfaces and air of indoor hard court tennis.
The summer, which included a gold medal loss to Novak Djokovic, also saw a long period of fatigue. None of this is a legitimate excuse for a poor slide since the US Open, with a 14-4 record and a 77.8% win rate, numbers that most tennis players can only dream of.
Most tennis players are not heirs to the great era in the history of men’s tennis, but rather the avatar expected for the sport in the years to come.
A plummet on the bridge of his nose to help keep his streets clear for the second straight match at the ATP Tour Finals in Turin on Friday said it all. Two consecutive losses to Kasper Ruud and Alexander Zverev followed by an easy, unremarkable victory over Andrei Rublev, and Alcaraz’s season was over. He felt it.
The final of Carlos Alcaraz’s ATP tournament ended with the defeat of Alexander Zverev. (Cleve Brunskill/Getty Images)
“If someone says he’s new, he’s lying,” Alcaraz said in a press conference after his week-long loss to Ruud. He described a long, arduous year, in which he won tournaments or was injured, the clay season before Roland Garros, the French Open. “Some players handle it better than others. I’m tired. I’m mentally exhausted.’
After Friday’s loss to Zverev, Alcaraz, 21, spoke to reporters in a brilliant and frustrating hour and 57-minute session about being tired again. He still needs to find some fuel for an emotional Davis Cup week that includes the final matches of Rafael Nadal’s career.
He also acknowledged his tendency to overdo it, spikes that have generated a lot of debate about his tennis lately, especially in the context of Sinner’s relentless ability to win.
“I’ve had great tournaments and really bad ones,” he said. There is one thing he is looking for next year: “More consistency.”
After a season with two majors out of four and two more titles, greater consistency will be a great prospect for their rivals. There is no doubt that the Alcaraz they know and fear will return once the calendar changes and tennis is played under natural light and breezes. By age 21, he had won four Grand Slam titles and was 12-1 in five-set matches, capable of hitting shots they couldn’t even imagine with a big reel. He’s not going anywhere. Everyone knows not to pack anything remotely longer than a six-week period for him this time of year.
“I told him that he beat me a lot this year, so he had to win at least once, an important victory,” Zverev said after the finale when they were on the net about the laughter they shared.
Alcaraz believes that one day he will be a great interior player. He knows that he is not there now, or rather, he knows himself very well, but the others are better. Growing up in temperate Spain, he rarely played at home. He barely exercises at home. As the years go by, he should accumulate enough matches to become more comfortable in that environment. But it’s not there yet.
Over the past few weeks, he’s been playing with his backhand and shortening his swing to account for how the ball slides in. At the Paris Masters, he said the court was so fast it didn’t even feel like tennis.
“A lot of players are better than me on indoor courts,” he said.
His inability to take advantage of Zverev’s serve block on Friday was a concern, until you factor in the two break points Zverev faced in the second set, the first he faced all tournament. Alcaraz’s own serve is the limiting factor on these courts and in his game, something of which he is fully aware. When he destroyed Djokovic in this year’s Wimbledon final, Djokovic was surprised, even shocked, by how well Alcaraz served. Just like indoor tennis, if Alcaraz can pull it off, the rest of the course is worth watching.
So far he has failed to do so, and in contrast to the absolute solidity of Zverev’s serve, he has lately been an albatross of double faults and swings. The German lost about a point per service game before Alcaraz faced him, but this second time he shot in 15-40 minutes, which for the player himself will be longer than Alcaraz’s lines on this serve. for fans to see.
He also missed two half-court balls in the first set tiebreaker: a forehand that fell into the net and then a backhand several feet long. Alcaraz waited for a short serve after Zverev launched a forehand that appeared to sail past him. He pushed the ball and forced himself to stretch for a difficult volley that could have been the key shot of regulation time. He missed it. He was incredulous.
Carlos Alcaraz wants to improve his service as he develops. (Stefano Guidi/AFP via Getty Images)
As was their tendency, there were two fun rhythms mixed in with all of this. A low forehand pass and a topspin backhand lob left Zverev wondering how on earth he pulled it off, especially after the previous one.
“In the most important moments, he suddenly becomes a different person,” Zverev told reporters at a news conference. “You can’t suddenly beat a winner. Suddenly, he makes every pass down the line. You can put a coin in there and it hits it.”
Alcaraz rarely drops his racket. He lost that tiebreaker on Friday and hit his pocket.
Then he came out and played a game that showed his head was still in the final set. He hit a forehand from the center of the court to the center of the net. He hit a backhand on break point and that was too much. You can put balls on the coin, but you don’t have Zverev’s many Tour finals, titles and years chasing the ‘big three’ of Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Alcaraz has been pursued almost since he was an ATP Tour player. He must acclimatize with a goal behind him.
In the final moments, after the day’s final winner, he raised his hands toward the crowd for the first time, trying to rally them behind him. Win or lose, Alcaraz, that fun-loving player who can hit the perfect shot when it matters most, has been out for a while.
He also wasn’t there when he wanted them to be on Friday, making all the big points he earned look like cotton candy.
“I have had incredible points, incredible games, but in some games where I have opportunities, I fail a lot,” he said at a press conference.
“I have to work to be more stable. “Let’s see.”
(Imagen superior: Shi Tang/Getty Images)
