A month on English grass, first at the Queens tournament and then on the Wimbledon courts, has cleared up any doubts about Carlos Alcaraz’s potential and skills on the most complex and arguably most infrequent surface in the world of tennis . He has also explained the ability to withstand the physical, emotional and media demands that Wimbledon, the most famous tournament, prestige perfectly cultivated by the wisdom of the British to turn a tradition in danger, and the grass is, into a factor of originality, pomp and circumstance. Along the way, the 20-year-old Alcaraz won all five of her Queens matches and all six of her Wimbledon matches. There is one left. He will play him today and he will not find a more formidable opponent: Novak Djokovic.
The Serbian and the Spaniard are separated by 16 years and a ton of victories in the four Grand Slam tournaments. Djokovic, the last Mohican of the triumvirate he formed with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal for almost 20 years, collects 23 titles from the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open. He is the all-time leader in wins – Nadal has 22 Grand Slam titles – and nothing we’ve seen this year points to a decline. In June he beat Roland Garros. In July he will aim for the fifth successive victory in London. If Alcaraz prevails, he will match Federer with eight Wimbledon titles.
Djokovic is a legend in full form. Alcaraz is much more than a phenomenal young tennis player, rightfully aspiring to the position that the three previous masters have held for so long. Alcaraz is what he plays, how he plays and what radiates when he plays. Despite the precocity, it can already be measured in numbers. In just a year and a half, he has gone from position 120 in the Association of Professional Tennis Players (ATP) ranking to first place, a vertiginous jump without comparison possible in the history of tennis. He already has a Grand Slam title. In 2022 he won the USA Open at 19 years old. He has also shown that he is a player for all types of tournaments and surfaces.
The statistics speak of a precocious, complete and competitive player, but they say nothing of what Alcaraz means to tennis, especially at a time when he hinted at an unfathomable void behind Djokovic, Nadal and Federer. Each has been different in character and style, but in all cases the profile as a player stood out so sharply that the others paled next to it. The diversity has been as important as the effectiveness of the three great champions on the court, with an incalculable return on the global popularity of tennis.
Everything indicates that players such as the Danish Rune, the Italian Sinner or the Norwegian Ruud are about to arrive to stay. They are young and talented, but for now they are not identified with a distinctive image. They are different, but not radiant. They are in a nebula, waiting for them to establish the final profile, if they ever get it. Not only does Alcaraz win more tournaments than them, but he is already identified as a tennis player. And what a tennis player. There is no player who deviates more from current conventions.
In an era of tennis players who are two meters tall, Alcaraz is 1.83 meters tall, a height that he uses every millimeter to move around the court with the speed of lightning. His speed impresses as much as the variety of the blows, of a technical richness only comparable to his bar to use them. Its range makes it unpredictable, but it doesn’t scatter it. Rarely has such a radical mixture of imagination, wrist, power, subtlety and organization been seen. It should not be seen. In Carlos Alcaraz, you have to enjoy it. It is the best gift that tennis could receive.
