«Most tennis players on the circuit play in a similar way. They hit hard and cross-court with their forehand and when they can, they attack down the line, looking for their opponent’s mistake. With Carlos, it doesn’t work like that. Against him, you don’t just have to defend yourself from the back of the court because he’s capable of hitting winning shots from anywhere, he plays in all directions, he invents when others wouldn’t,» he analyses. Daniil Medvedev And behind the typical praise for his next rival, who he will face today in the Wimbledon semi-finals (2:30 p.m., Movistar), there is one absolute certainty: Carlos Alcaraz It’s different. In a tennis that is becoming more and more physical and robotic, boom, boom, boom, boom, right-handers here and there, the Spaniard is capable of creating. The rest box, he paints; such is the distinction.
The drop shot is his symbol, he does almost twice as much (2.9% of his shots) Novak Djokovic (1.7%) and more than double that Jannik Sinner (1.3%), but there is much more. “My favorite shots are the forehand drop shot, the forehand passing shot and I would say the lob with my back between my legs,” he answered the other day after beating Ugo Humbert in the quarter-finals of the London Grand Slam when asked about his most prized skills. “The lob between the legs?” his interviewer replied. “Yes, yes, I do it a lot, I like it,” he confirmed. At 21, Alcaraz might seem like the leader of a revolutionary, more inventive generation, a group of young people called to recover and modernise old-school tennis, but in reality he is practically alone.
“It makes tennis a game of chess”
«Carlos has found a game pattern that is different from the others and it is a great achievement to carry it out because he also needs the power of his rivals. In the last 10 years tennis has become more physical, almost completely physical, and he is at the same level and at the same time uses resources that others do not have. He is one of the few who uses the drop shot as a winning resource, not as a desperate shot, but he also changes with his game from the baseline or with his volley finishes,» he analyses. Anabel Medina captain of the Spanish team at the Billie Jean King Cup, who is enjoying the recent progress of the Spaniard. Champion of Roland Garros and now two matches away from another title at Wimbledon. If he wins today, the winner of the duel between Novak Djokovic and Lorenzo Musetti (around 5:30 p.m., Movistar) to take on history.
«Alcaraz brings tennis back to what it is, a game of chess, and that makes life very difficult for his opponents. From the beginning, before starting, they have to think: ‘Let’s see where this one comes out’. He is also very physical, as much or more than the rest, but he proposes different things,» he comments. Carlos Martinez, Spanish coach, who is accompanying the Japanese these days Taiki Takizawa in the tournament for under 14s.
«It is clear that he has been a keen player since he was a child, spending hours and hours at the club with a sandwich in one hand and a racket in the other. In the classes they teach you the technical basis, they repeat each stroke a lot, but outside of classes you also have to do research. Alcaraz practiced in front of the pelota court, with friends, he had fun trying new things and now that tennis comes from within him», he points out. Jose Perlasformer technician of Juan Carlos Ferrerowho experienced some of Alcaraz’s own teenage training sessions.
As a child, games with 60 drops
Because that is where the reason for the imagination of the current world number three lies. The Real Sociedad Club de Campo de Murcia school, the club where he trained, was run for 30 years by his father, also Carlos, and young Alcaraz entertained himself there beyond his training sessions. As they say in football, he is a street tennis player, he practiced purely for fun, without a coach always attentive, far from the competition. Hence, also, his playful attitude against the seriousness that prevails on the circuit.
Antonio Lopez one of Alcaraz’s childhood rivals, explained to EL MUNDO a few months ago that in their matches they could add up to more than 50 or 60 drop shots, both of them engaged in a strange competition to see who could execute that shot better. And these achievements come from those beginnings. At 21 years old, this Friday against Medvedev, Alcaraz will seek another final at Wimbledon that will also be a vindication: creativity in power.