Last year Carlos Alcaraz expressed the view that “the US Open suits me the best; Wimbledon might be the trickiest”. To the tennis world it might have seemed like the Spaniard was resiling from his position as credible challenger or delivering on being the “next great thing”.
Over the past five years, those who had threatened to step in to replace Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic found the trio’s greatness more durable than form or ranking, with Djokovic now the last man standing.
He arrives to London as the Australian Open and Roland Garros winner, but the anticipation is that the 20-year-old Spanish player, whose tennis style enlists qualities of all three champions, might have the character and game to stand up to seven matches and the imperious position the 36-year-old Serb continues to hold.
A changed mood since the “tricky Wimbledon” remark has seen Alcaraz pragmatically reposition himself as menace-in-chief to Djokovic’s dominance. His win at Queens last week marked a fifth title of the year and it was his first one ever on grass.
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The win also returned him to world number one, replacing Djokovic. As such, the Spaniard’s arrival at the All England Club, when play begins on Monday, will be as the top seed.
No longer the teenager, Alcaraz doesn’t have the boyish thoughts of eight months ago. The molecules in his head have evidently rearranged and, after Queens, he said he now feels like “one of the favourites” to win.
Why not? When he won last year’s US Open, he became the youngest man to top the singles rankings at 19 years, four months and six days old, and the first teenager in the Open era to lead the men’s rankings.
A mark of quality, things have happened for him faster than most, even though he is a little light on grass and has played just 11 matches. The point of difference is that he will bring another quality to Centre Court that Stefanos Tsitsipas, Daniil Medvedev, Casper Ruud, Jannik Sinner and Taylor Fritz have never been able to do.
Alcaraz brings a wow factor. That is, star quality, the most destructive forehand in tennis, an aggressive style, with softs hands, feline movement and an ethereal quality that players either have or have not. He has presence and fills the court. Everything about him is big.
“Yeah, I have a lot of confidence right now coming into Wimbledon,” he said after beating Australian Alex De Minaur 6-4, 6-4 in the Queens final. “I ended the week playing at the high level. So, right now I feel one of the favourites, you know, to win Wimbledon.
“But honestly, I have to get more experience on grass. Even if I win the title, I just played 11 matches in my career on grass, so I have to get more experience, more hours. But obviously after beating amazing guys, you know, great players, and the level that I played, I consider myself one of the favourites or one of the players to be able to win Wimbledon.”
Sometimes timing and good fortune means more than any other factor. Lleyton Hewitt and Goran Ivanisevic squeezed in Wimbledon titles between the Pete Sampras-dominated era and the age of the big four. Timing may be also one of the Alcaraz properties.
[ Alcaraz ready to lock horns with legendary DjokovicOpens in new window ]
One day after his 19th birthday, at the Madrid Open last year, he defeated 22-times Grand Slam winner and boyhood idol Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals to become the first teenager to defeat him on clay.
The following day, he went on to beat the world number one and top seed Djokovic in the semi-finals and became the youngest player to win a match against a world number one since 2004. He also became the first player to ever beat Djokovic and Nadal back-to-back on clay.
“I see myself with a lot of weapons, you know, on grass. I try to hit big shots all the time, you know. I think I improve my serve really well. You know, with the forehand, you know, I try to dominate all the time,” he said last week.
“The serve today was really helpful weapon for me. You know, I think I saved a lot of tough moments thanks to serve. So it’s something that I working a lot during, you know, the past months and obviously coming to the grass is something that, you know, I work more than probably other shots. But yeah, I consider myself a good player on grass with all the weapons that I have.”
[ Timing proves to be everything for Carlos AlcarazOpens in new window ]
He will need them. Nobody in the last 20 years other than Djokovic, Federer, Nadal and Andy Murray have won Wimbledon, with Djokovic going for five in a row and eight overall to equal Federer’s total.
Hewitt in 2002, when he beat Argentina’s David Nalbandian in straight sets, was the last player to get a look-in before the shutout, while Murray is the only player to have met Djokovic in a Centre Court duel and beaten him.
That was 10 years ago in the first of Murray’s two wins in 2013. If Alcaraz is out on the practice courts looking for a hitting partner over the next few days, the veteran and wily Scottish player might be a wise choice if he is to stop Djokovic’s march towards a calendar Grand Slam.
