2 days ago
Carlos Alcaraz has speed of Novak Djokovic and feel of Roger Federer
'Recency bias' was the cautious buzz term around Roland Garros on Sunday night as players, coaches and pundits debated the significance of what they had just witnessed for 5½ hours. Was this thrilling five-set battle between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner the best grand-slam final in history? Is Alcaraz already better than the likes of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer?
It's all subjective, of course, but there was universal agreement that this was a match that will stand the test of time and rank right up there with the finest ever to be played. The exact order varies but we can already add Alcaraz v Sinner at the 2025 French Open to a list that also contains Björn Borg v John McEnroe at Wimbledon 1980, Nadal v Federer at Wimbledon 2008 and Djokovic v Nadal at the 2012 Australian Open.
'If people put our match in that table, it's a huge honour for me,' Alcaraz said late on Sunday as he basked in the glory of his astonishing comeback from three championship points down.
The more meaningful and punchy debate was on the status of Alcaraz in tennis as it stands. The bar to be a legend in this sport has been raised considerably by the respective efforts of Djokovic, Nadal and Federer in racking up grand-slam counts in the twenties, and it will take some time for Alcaraz to catch up. But he is most certainly on track in the early stages of his career, with five major trophies in his cabinet at the age of 22 and three days on Sunday, which, remarkably, was the exact same age at which Nadal claimed his fifth.
'Honestly the coincidence of winning my fifth grand slam in the same age as Rafa Nadal, I'm going to say that's the destiny, I guess,' Alcaraz said. 'It is a stat that I'm going to keep with me for ever, winning the fifth grand slam at the same time as Rafa, my idol, my inspiration. It's a huge honour, honestly. Hopefully it's not going to stop like this.'
Some went a little too far on Sunday and perhaps fell victim to the aforementioned recency bias. Within minutes of the match coming to a conclusion, John McEnroe bowed to hyperbole — not for the first time — and suggested that Alcaraz and Sinner would both be considered the favourites in a hypothetical match against Rafael Nadal at his best. This is the 14-times French Open champion whose many victories in a Roland Garros final included a 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 thrashing of Federer in 2008.
'You would make a serious argument with both guys that they would be favoured to beat Nadal at his best,' McEnroe, speaking on TNT Sports, said 'Do I think they're going to reach 20, 24 [titles]? No, because that plateau is so hard. But these two guys right now, it's like when you watch the NBA and you say nobody could be better than Michael Jordan. The tennis level right now is higher than I've ever seen.'
The last point raises something that should always be considered when comparisons are made between different eras. It was challenging, for example, to determine who would win between a peak Federer and Rod Laver, with his wooden racket, because of the evolving nature of sport.
Advancements in racket technology and nutritional understanding came too late for the likes of Laver and Borg, and there is even a feeling now that the ball is generally being hit harder by better athletes compared with 20 years ago because of the sport's progression.
'Every rivalry is different,' Sinner said. 'Back in the days, they played a little bit different tennis. Now, the ball is going fast. It's very physical. It's slightly different from my point of view, but you cannot compare. I was lucky enough to play against Novak, against Rafa. Beating these guys, it takes a lot. I have the same feeling with Carlos and some other players.'
It is clear, though, that Alcaraz is better developed at a younger age across all surfaces compared with Djokovic, Nadal and Federer. He has already won grand slams on hard, clay and grass with an all-round game in which he is as comfortable rallying from the baseline as he is charging towards the net. His footwork on all surfaces is remarkable.
Again, this does not necessarily mean he is already definitively better than the others as it would take some going to beat a peak Federer on Wimbledon's Centre Court or outlast a peak Djokovic for hours on Melbourne's Rod Laver Arena. But the way in which he raised his level when it mattered most to produce some explosive shot-making at the end of the fifth set shows the belief he has in his abundance of skills.
'I think he is born to play these kind of moments,' Juan Carlos Ferrero, Alcaraz's coach, said. 'Every time that we were in these situations, even when he was younger in the Challengers, when he had the big opportunities for him at that age he always went for it.
'In this kind of situation of course it's so much more important than maybe other tournaments. But his style of game again I think has to be the same. It's something we try to prepare his mind for these kind of situations, like the tie-break at the fifth set. He went for it since the first point. Very brave all the time and very aggressive trying to win the point all the time.'
Curiously, Alcaraz has not quite cracked the Australian Open, going no further than the quarter-finals in 2024 and 2025, but it is inevitable that he will complete the career grand slam there at some point in the future when he figures out the best way of peaking in time for this tournament just weeks into the season. Only Djokovic, Nadal, Federer, Laver and Andre Agassi have won all four majors in the Open era.
For now, it is onto Wimbledon this month for a bid at grand slam No6 and a third consecutive All England Club title. Worryingly for the rest of the field, he has quickly become as comfortable on a grass court as he is on a clay court, channelling the greats of the past.
'Alcaraz's best surface to me, shockingly, would be between here [Roland Garros] and Wimbledon,' Agassi said. 'I'd actually say grass might be his best surface, and the reason why I'd say grass is his best surface has nothing to do with his swings.
'It has to do with the less diminishing speed that happens to him compared with other players, and his strength of legs, his balance of getting under the ball. You have got to remember this guy has defence and speed like Novak, if not more. He has feel like Federer, you could argue at times if not more. And he has RPMs in pace like Rafa, you could argue maybe even more.'
