Carlos Alcaraz and a tennis full of resources | ATP Tour

Wimbledon

Alcaraz and a tennis full of resources

The Spaniard will play the third round of Wimbledon on Friday

July 03, 2024

Before the start of this year’s Wimbledon, the prestigious magazine The Sunday Times defined Carlos Alcaraz as “the saviour of tennis”. The praise, of the highest order, logically reached the ears of the 21-year-old, who has qualified for the third round of Wimbledon.

“It’s very good praise that I accept,” the Spaniard admitted on Wednesday after defeating Aleksandar Vukic in three sets, facing Frances Tiafoe next Friday. “It feels good to hear that, but I don’t feel like the savior of tennis. In the end, tennis is evolving, obviously we had a very nice period with Federer, Rafa and Djokovic. We continue to enjoy Djokovic, we can’t enjoy Roger anymore and Rafa’s ability to play and what he’s playing.”

“We try to play good tennis, we try to make people enjoy it,” said the No. 3 in the PIF ATP Rankings. “There are a lot of players who are also nice to watch. I enjoy it when people enjoy it, but I am not a savior of tennis and I am not close to that.”

One thing is clear: Alcaraz is a different tennis player because of his way of playing, displaying a very varied range of resources that delight the public, such as his famous drop shots.

“It comes naturally to me,” said the Murcian. “I have always excelled at that: as a child I was not strong, I did not have great shots, but I did have a lot of variety. That is why I stood out a bit when I was 10, 11 or 12 years old. I could serve to the net already at that age, hit lobs and go up to the net, do drop shots… I had a fairly wide variety, something that has always come naturally to me.”

“I always try to be true to my style in every match I play: be aggressive, hit winners, return to net, serve to net, try to get to the net as much as possible. That is the tennis we are going to try to show in every match I play and try to perfect it more and more.”

That tennis includes more than just drop shots, as Alcaraz himself explained.

“For me, they are great weapons,” Alcaraz explained. “And not only the fact of hitting early, which I feel very comfortable with, but also the fact of forcing myself to hit forward,” he stressed. “When I support myself well, I am in a position to go up to the volley and hit forward. That helps me a lot to hit the center of the racket, hit it well and end up making a winner or having a comfortable volley,” the Spaniard continued. “Both one thing and the other are key on grass. It is very important to be in an attacking position before the other player and it helps me a lot to be faithful to my style and impose my game before the opponent.”