US Open Champion Men's Singles
The 20-year-old two-time Grand Slam winner has the most complete game for a player his age men's tennis has ever seen. Alyssa Roenigk breaks down what makes him unique -- and how he may remind you of a certain Big Three.
Alyssa Roenigk breaks down what makes him unique -- and how he may remind you of a certain Big Three.
- Youngest Men's World No. 1 Ever
- Youngest Men's US Open Champion
- Youngest Men's Grand Slam Champion
- ATP Player of the Year 2022
- ATP Most Improved Player 2022
- Youngest Player to Win Rio Open
- Fastest Improvement to World No. 1
- ATP Newcomer of the Year 2022
- Youngest Player to Win Madrid Open
- Youngest Men's World No. 1 Ever
- Youngest Men's US Open Champion
- Youngest Men's Grand Slam Champion
- ATP Player of the Year 2022
- ATP Most Improved Player 2022
- Youngest Player to Win Rio Open
- Fastest Improvement to World No. 1
- ATP Newcomer of the Year 2022
- Youngest Player to Win Madrid Open
FILLING ‘BIG’ SHOES
Ask Alcaraz to describe his game and he'll say he's unlike any player. "I do not define myself by anyone else," he said in May. "I'm simply 100 percent Alcaraz." Ask anyone else, and comparisons to Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic flow. The ingenuity, the grit, the showstopping flair. Djokovic drew the comparison himself after July's Wimbledon final. "He's got the best of all three worlds," he said.
But at 20, Alcaraz is better than the three men who have dominated tennis were at his age in nearly every area. And he's only getting better. "Every once in a while, we're lucky to get people that are special," says Paul Annacone, a Tennis Channel analyst who coached Federer and Pete Sampras. "I think Carlos is one of the quintessential artists in tennis."
The
creativity
of
Roger Federer
Of the Big Three, only Federer never faced Alcaraz, yet the young Spaniard is most often compared to him. That's for good reason.
Few players in history have had more weapons at their disposal or known better
when to deploy them than Federer. He was explosive, yet floated balletically around the court, his game lethal from every area. He was fearless in his decision-making under pressure,
his mental game and shot selection carrying him into his 40s. And he was so much fun to watch --
around-the-net, behind-the-back, between the legs -- and, of course, those well-disguised drop shots that
changed the game.
In these ways, Alcaraz plays a lot like the Swiss giant, but he has proven to be a
quicker study all-around. It's taken Alcaraz less time than Federer to combine a ferocious topspin forehand
with soft, precise hands and to be the type of player who's both feared from the baseline and a torment at the
net.
Take this: Two years after turning pro and breaking into the ATP's top 100 at age 18, Federer
defeated seven-time Wimbledon champion Pete Sampras in the fourth round at the All England Club. He took
another two years to lift his first Grand Slam trophy. Alcaraz? He reached the top 100 for the first time in
May 2021, also at 18. Two years later, he is a two-time Grand Slam champion, has defeated the top five players
in the world in majors and is the world No. 1.
Alcaraz has played 66 more matches than Federer, owns nine more titles -- and won nearly 20% more of his matches in his first two years on tour.
Alcaraz's career only spans two years, but he's showing promise at majors -- even when compared to the 20-time Slam champion with one of the greatest service games ever.
If Alcaraz has room for improvement, it is on serve. Over his career, Federer won
more than 77% of his first-serve points at majors, while Alcaraz trails the Swiss player, and the field, in
the same stat. "He's had a good serve since he was a kid," Alcaraz's first coach, Kiko Navarro, says of the
shot that is regularly clocked at 137 mph, "but he needs a higher efficiency percentage."
Like all
of Alcaraz's game, however, his serve is improving fast. Take the Wimbledon final against Djokovic, where his service game, especially in the later sets,
made the difference. Alcaraz served with more power than he had all tournament, averaging 121.3 mph on his
first serves and 102.5 mph on his second serves, and gained confidence throughout the match.
In
the fifth set, Alcaraz won 70% of his second-serve points and, at 5-4, smashed six straight first serves to
take his second Grand Slam win.
No weapon in Alcaraz's arsenal is celebrated more than his drop shot, which he uses more frequently and successfully than Federer ever did.
The key to a great drop shot? A forehand with the power and precision to pressure
an opponent into taking a defensive position behind the baseline, coupled with the speed to get to the next
ball early, the ability to disguise the necessary grip switch on the racket, and light, accurate
hands.
"Carlos has learned how to get people on their heels and then he feathers the drop shot
over," Annacone says. "The genius behind this is he sends the message early on about his power and when
everyone's leery of that, the feathery touch comes."
So far in his young career, Alcaraz has made
the shot an average of 17 times per match, and 40% of the time, hits a winner. Three out of four times, he
wins the point. And while he sends the shot from both sides, he leans on his forehand nearly twice as much as
his backhand.
"Carlos can count on his hands in big moments," says former pro and TV analyst James
Blake. "As someone who had a big forehand and a terrible drop shot, I think the ability to shift from power to
touch is very difficult. Carlos is confident and comfortable using a lot of different drop shots. He'll do it
while backing up or moving forward. He's using it to his advantage extremely well."
Alcaraz wins 7% more points on drop shots at majors than Federer did. But take that with a grain of salt: Federer played more years -- 24 -- than Alcaraz has been alive.
The
Mentality
of
Rafael Nadal
Like Nadal, Alcaraz's greatest asset might lie in his unwavering belief that he will win the next point.
Some comparisons roll easy: Like Nadal, Alcaraz is Spanish, won his first Grand
Slam at 19 and had early success on clay. Both men play joyful, physical, tireless tennis and are brick walls
on defense. But what most experts want to talk about when comparing the men has less to do with how they play
the game than how they view a match.
"A lot of the talk when Rafa was Carlos's age was that he's
gonna burn out," Blake says. "He plays so hard on every single point, no one thought he'd make it till he's
30. I see the same thing in Carlos. He doesn't give up on a point. At 40-love, he's still going to compete
hard. He's still going to make you earn every single point. I hope that, like Rafa, his mind never gets to the
point where he loses that intensity."
Nadal and Alcaraz had both won two Slams and four of every five matches. But while Nadal owned five more titles, he'd played 61 more matches.
The Spaniards are nearly identical in tiebreakers at majors, winning more than 70%. Alcaraz has lost only one five-set match at a major.
Alcaraz grew up watching Nadal win majors on every surface. And like Nadal, he
plays a fast, physical game that is most suited for hard courts and clay, but that he has adapted to grass.
Their playing style has a downside, though. Alcaraz is at risk of his body letting him down before
his mind and shots ever do. Seventeen times in his career, Nadal either retired mid-match or handed his
opponent a walkover. And those stats don't account for the many matches he missed while recovering from injuries.
Alcaraz has retired mid-match only twice in the past two years but missed six
weeks, as well as the ATP Finals and Davis Cup finals, last year with an abdominal muscle tear after winning the US Open. He returned in February only
to withdraw from the Mexican Open with a hamstring injury and the Monte Carlo Masters a
month later with arthritis in his left hand and pain in his back.
"The thing Federer and Djokovic
have been able to avoid is major injuries during most of their careers," says TV analyst Pam Shriver. "Nadal
has had to manage quite a few. I think Nadal will be a great example for [Alcaraz] because when his knee
injuries were becoming chronic, he had to reset his time on court and be okay with less time training to
manage his body. Being smart about his time on court will be the key to his longevity."
Alcaraz dictates points with his forehand, which he hits with as much accuracy and variety as he does power.
At last year's US Open, Alcaraz's forehand averaged 78 mph -- 2 mph faster than
the field. During his win in the final over Alex de Minaur at Queen's Club in June, he hit a 106 mph
forehand winner. When asked during the Wimbledon champions dinner how he achieves such speed, Alcaraz joked,
"Just close my eyes, hit as hard as I can and pray."
There's a bit more to it than that, of
course. In a video on his YouTube channel, famed tennis coach Patrick Mouratoglou broke down Alcaraz's
forehand and showed side-by-side comparisons to Nadal.
"Although he's a righty, a lot of people
compare Alcaraz to Nadal [a lefty]," Mouratoglou says in the video. "There are a few things they have in
common: the grip, the takeback, how they engage their legs, their racket acceleration at impact and their
racket path."
Mouratoglou highlighted the key elements of Alcaraz's technique: how he starts his
backswing early, keeps control of the racket while he rotates his entire upper body, loads his legs and
explodes through the shot to create power, and loosens and drops his wrist upon contact to create "crazy
spin." But he emphasized that Alcaraz generates power in more ways than one.
"He also extends his
right arm long before he hits, and keeps it extended until the end of his motion," he says. "This distance he
creates generates more racket speed. The further the weight is from the center point, the faster it moves."
Like Nadal, Alcaraz is nothing if not lethal under pressure. On either end of a break point on tour, they can deliver the fatal blow or dig themselves out of trouble.
The
Wow Factor
of
Novak Djokovic
There has been no greater moment of comparison than the 2023 Wimbledon final, where Alcaraz beat the 23-time Grand Slam champion at his own game.
It's like he's playing himself. That was the common refrain late in this year's Wimbledon final, as Djokovic fought to match Alcaraz's constantly improving tactics.
The plucky defense, the acrobatic transition to offense, the fantastic front-court play and an ever-stronger
service game. It was as if the 36-year-old was facing a younger version of himself.
Thing is,
Djokovic at 20 likely couldn't have done what Alcaraz did last month and topple himself at the peak of his
career. At that age, Djokovic had yet to win a major and struggled with his fitness and serve. He needed time
to grow into the champion he is today.
"When I was calling Alcaraz's clay-court matches in
February, my jaw dropped many times. Not just at his speed, but in his ability to combine his speed with what
he can do from a defensive position, which is what Djokovic can do: turn defense into offense because of his
court coverage," Shriver says.
"It's the combination of going from deep in one corner to deep into
another corner. Most people would be in desperation just trying to get the ball back and he's able to do
something exceptional with it, just like Djokovic."
Djokovic was a late bloomer compared to Alcaraz, who has more titles and more majors. But can he maintain the pace for the next decade or two?
Like Djokovic, Alcaraz is almost as likely to fire a forehand down the line as he is crosscourt.
Alcaraz is winning at a faster clip at age 20 than Djokovic on every surface, his
game rapidly improving from tournament to tournament. But his biggest challenge after experiencing such early
success will be dealing with the weight of expectations, managing his body and his mind and staying in the
game long enough to match Djokovic's pace late in his career.
"Emotions can drain you," Shriver
says. "It's not just your heart rate being up at 180 and covering the physical points. It's also the wear and
tear of the stress that can take it out of you."
Facing Djokovic in the semifinals of the French
Open in June, in his first major since winning the US Open this past September, Alcaraz says the stress of the
moment caused his body to cramp until he could barely run. "What happened to Carlos at Roland
Garros is a fair comparison to Djokovic's early career and the trouble he had in certain conditions," Shriver
says.
But what happened after that devastating loss was a positive harbinger. Alcaraz and his team
studied what went wrong. They made adjustments. And he won the next two tournaments he entered, including
Wimbledon.
Alcaraz is deploying his backhand, a much-improved shot for him, with more accuracy and precision.
There was a time when opponents attacked Alcaraz's backhand, believing it to be
the lesser of his evils. That's no longer the case. Alcaraz's backhand, and specifically his two-handed
stroke, has become as dangerous as any shot in his arsenal. And even after misfiring a few times, he continues
to trust the shot, an important note late in matches. But it's not just Alcaraz's powerful, leaping two-handed
stroke that's dangerous for opponents.
"The thing that's interesting is how comfortably he can take
a hand off of the racket and then, all of a sudden, throw a nice, knifing slice backhand at you with one
hand," Annacone says. "He is multifaceted, and the backhand side is another example of that. Technically, the
takeback, the preparation, the intensity and the ability to let his left hand help, it all looks fluid and
natural and easy. His backhand looks elastic. And that's special."
The biggest surprise in Alcaraz's much-improved backhand? It's almost on par with Djokovic's, which is arguably the best on tour.
The
future
of Carlos Alcaraz
He's won two of the past three majors he's entered and six tournaments so far this year. His next challenge: Become the first man since Federer in 2008 to lift back-to-back US Open trophies.
weeks at NO. 1
IN 2023
14
2023 Season RECORD
53-6
2023 PRIZE MONEY (USD)
8.5M
A couple hours after the Wimbledon final, when he'd had time to take in the nearly
five-hour match, Djokovic praised Alcaraz's poise, his formidable defense and his ability to close out a match
playing attacking tennis. He told reporters he saw some of himself in Alcaraz, as well as elements of Nadal's
and Federer's games. Then he went a step further.
He called Alcaraz unlike anyone he'd played, said
he deserves to be No. 1 and looked forward to rekindling their newfound rivalry in New York. "It's only been
three matches we've played against each other," he said. "Three really close matches, two already this year in
later stages of Grand Slams. I hope we get to play in the US Open." The two met again just before New York, in
the Cincinnati Open final, where Djokovic won a three-set thriller. (Watch the US Open on ESPN and ESPN+ starting Monday at 11 a.m.)
Alcaraz possesses elements of the Big Three. But taken in total, his game is, as he says, "100 percent Alcaraz." That makes forecasting his future as impossible as it is fun to contemplate. Will he keep pace with the GOATs?
At this point in his career, Alcaraz is matching Nadal's win rate at majors, but because he's won so quickly on every surface, it's possible he'll tally more Slams than any of the Big Three did by age 25. If he wins in New York -- where he will compete as the No. 1 seed for the first time -- he will have won more majors by age 20 than any of them. After that, Alcaraz has the game to become the greatest of all time. The question is whether his body and mind will allow him the time to get there.
Produced by ESPN Creative Studio: Leon Belt, Robert Booth, Dominique DeMoe, Heather Donahue, Jarret Gabel, Luke Knox, Joey Maese, Dan Pellegrino, Jason Potterton, Garrett Siegel and Rachel Weiss.
Written by Alyssa Roenigk. Edited by Elaine Teng. Additional reporting by Alberto Ramón
Sales.
Translation by Mauro Diaz.
Design by Studio 28K. Illustrations by Dave Flanagan. Data research by Hawk-Eye Innovations. Additional data courtesy of Tennis Abstract and ATP. Photography credits: Kohjiro Kinno for ESPN and Getty Images.
