Carlos Alcaraz caught the eyes of the tennis world last year after beating Casper Ruud in the finals of the US Open to claim his first Grand Slam and has since been in fine form. This season, Alcaraz won the Madrid Opens, the Indian Wells tournament, and the most famous of all, the Wimbledon Championship, where he defeated Novak Djokovic in the final.
However, since his exit from the China Open semifinals exit, the Spaniard is having a rough time finding his form, losing four games out of a possible six and finishing in second place behind Djokovic.
Feliciano Lopez praises Carlos Alcaraz for facing Novak Djokovic
Carlos Alcaraz began the season pretty well after missing out on the Australian Open due to injury. He won his second Masters 1000 of his career at Indian Wells before riding over Djokovic to win the Wimbledon title. But the Spaniard’s encouraging start dwindled in the second half of the season, reaching only one final from five tournaments.
A few days ago, at the exhibition game in Mexico City, Carlos Alcaraz revealed that the 2023 season ended terribly because he didn’t take time to choose the tournaments he was going to feature in, leading to injuries and fatigue.
In an interview with AS, former Spanish tennis icon Feliciano Lopez praised Alcaraz for not being scared of Djokovic each time they met.“
That’s why I give so much credit to what he’s doing. Because he doesn’t scare him, he has enough maturity to assimilate it, the courage to face Djokovic, who is the best player, for many, in history, without fear.”
“The thing is that he plays every week at an enormously demanding level. When you aspire to be in the finals or win the tournaments, it is different and much more stressful than it can be for most. His comment is the result of learning. He’s only 20 years old, sometimes we forget that,” said the Spaniard.
“Furthermore, he plays with a lot of intensity, he needs to be fresh, have spark. He cannot achieve great results in a more diesel mode, like Djokovic, who sometimes starts matches at a slow pace, until he finds his moment and is already invincible. Carlos still does not have a database large enough to say, ‘here yes, here no, I’ll get ready here, I’ll leave this’. It’s very complicated. And everything that is happening to him, what he is experiencing so soon.”
Holger Rune on Carlos Alcaraz’s influence on Novak Djokovic retirement
Holger Rune has admitted that Novak Djokovic won’t stop winning big titles until Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, and himself are beating him consistently. Rune added that he believed the rivalry between himself, Alcaraz, and Sinner is good for the growth of tennis. At the same time, he pointed out that for the three of them to dominate the tour, they need to get Novak Djokovic out first.
“I think it’s really cool to be a part of this group because you know, all of us have been doing very very well, you know, Sinner had a phenomenal season, Alcaraz also with the Wimbledon title.”
“It’s really great to have this rivalry with us three players as we had the generation Roger, Rafa, Novak, Murray & yeah for the sport to grow, it’s really amazing to have this group of guys that can dominate the tour. I am not saying we are dominating the tour already, Novak is still there, we need to try to get him out of here,” Rune said.
Will Carlos Alcaraz be able to return to the fiery form he showed earlier this year? Make sure to tell us what you think in the comments section.
