The only defense Carlos Alcaraz knows is all-out attack. The 21-year-old sets up points, creates openings, and goes for high-risk shots; the stage of the match if he’s leading or trailing is irrelevant. Drop shots that skim the net, racy winners that go around the pole and outrageous forehands. He can run a marathon and win a sprint.
The Spaniard plays every shot in the book and thinks up new ones on the run. He smiles during matches, sometimes dazzled by his own brilliance, other times in disbelief. An expression that says, why? Not really.
Alcaraz, who won his third Grand Slam title on Sunday, his first at Roland Garros, is 11-1 in five-set matches. Against Alexander Zverev in the final of the French Open and world No.1 Jannik Sinner in the semifinals, Alcaraz motored from a 1-2 deficit in sets, not by keeping the ball in play, but by going for his shots. And like his last two opponents, Alcaraz was also running on reserve in the fourth and fifth sets, but he understood the only way he was crossing that finish line first was by winning it, not waiting for it.
“He’s a beast. He’s an animal,” Zverev said of the 21-year-old. “The intensity he plays with is different to other people.”
Alcaraz’s long-time coach Juan Carlos Ferrero talks as fast as the Spaniard charges the court, the duo is quite the vibe. Ferrero hurls instructions at the dynamo in the middle that leaves one wondering if he’s actually reminding Alcaraz of the defense they may have practiced a 1000 times.
“I’m trying just to be aggressive, to go for it, play my style -- go to the net, dropshots, hitting big shots,” said Alcaraz . “If I lose it, if I miss it, my feelings are really good. If I lose, it doesn’t matter if I miss it, because when I go for it, the feelings are much better than if I go defensive and lose. My team is telling me to go for it.”
Alcaraz is at No.2 in the rankings now which spreads the field for the new guard at Wimbledon, with Sinner and Alcaraz likely bookending the draw.
“My game suits very well for every surface because I practice it (like that),” Alcaraz said. “I wanted to develop my style of being aggressive all the time, practicing the defense and all that stuff...but my main goal is being aggressive as much as I can. On grass, I have to play like that almost every time, but on all surfaces too.”
Alcaraz — the youngest man to win a Grand Slam on three different surfaces after his triumphs on hard courts at the 2022 US Open and grass at 2023 Wimbledon – put a number against his achievements.
“Obviously winning the US Open, when I reached for the first time the No. 1 ranking, is something that I dreamt of since I started playing tennis, getting my first Grand Slam was pretty special,” Alcaraz said. “But the way that I won Wimbledon, beating Novak Djokovic in five sets, has been a great achievement for me.”
“Right now, lifting the Roland Garros trophy, knowing everything that I have been through the last month with the injuries...” he said. “Probably this one is the moment that I’m really proud of myself, because of everything that I have done the last month just to be ready for this tournament with my team. It has been really difficult for me.”
“So I’m going to say that this one, Roland Garros,” he said, looking up at the packed media room, “is the one I’m most proud about."
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