Carlos Alcaraz It has experienced an impressive progression over the last few months. It is spectacular to see how the Murcian’s tennis improves at the speed of light, adding different effects and speeds over time and, especially, developing a special intelligence to read different match situations. His ability to interpret what the match asks of him according to which player has allowed him to adapt to all kinds of scenarios in the past Miami Open 2022, where he confirmed his ambition and potential and was proclaimed the youngest tennis player in history to lift the title in Florida. A fundamental ingredient for his victory was what is theoretically his weakest shot: the serve.
A couple of years ago, the prudence around the figure of Carlos Alcaraz was marked by his weakness with the service. It was a blow that only started the exchange, weak and vulnerable, although there were already scaring blows in his repertoire that showed his exaggerated potential. The serve was, however, that question that made many avoid mammoth predictions, predictions that we now read forcefully (no wonder). However, the work of the Murcian to evolve and develop this shot is commendable, starting with last season, where his speed on serve experienced an exponential rise, reaching the mark of 220 km/h and adding much more power and forcefulness.
In the Miami tournament, the service of the player from El Palmar shone like never before. It was due to three factors that we have tried to analyze through our youtube channel, with images and graphics that show Alcaraz’s intelligence to do damage with a blow with room for improvement. In the first place, Carlos frequently used the take out the body, lowering the revolutions compared to other tournaments and seeking to ensure a large percentage of first (he did not shoot the lines with missiles as he did, for example, against Berrettini in Australia). The serve to the body is a very annoying variant, especially against opponents who like to get ahead of the baseline and attack the service well inside the court, with which it worked like a charm, for example, against Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Two more adjustments made Carlitos serve almost impenetrable. The first of them, its placement on certain occasions on the advantage side. The Murcian has developed a kick serve sinister, positioning himself almost in the doubles lane to propel himself, opening a tremendous parabola and forcing the rival receiver to position himself almost in the corner of the court to return a backhand, which allows Alcaraz to attack the next ball or even opt for the left as a second hit. Against rivals with a slower reaction capacity, less instinct and a heavier body to move, this tactic was devastating: Hubert Hurkacz and Marin Cilic experienced it in their flesh (neither could break their serve).
Finally, the match against Casper Ruud was the last challenge for Alcaraz’s service. We talk about a grand percent subtracter, who chooses to “camp” several meters behind the baseline and hit a first ball with a lot of weight and depth, a ball that surprised Carlos in the early stages of the game. He started break down and from there he adjusted his way of serving with a winning resource: the serve and volley. He used this tactic in eleven times… and won all eleven. Just as Novak Djokovic did against Daniil Medvedev in the Paris-Bercy final, Alcaraz looked for the net with vertigo and one goal, that of narrowing the court for his rival, making the goal smaller for a Ruud who had to adjust his remains to the millimeter to overcome a feline Carlos in that section. All thanks, again, to that serve with an open kick towards the Norwegian’s backhand zone, forcing him to look for a parallel passing almost from the baseline that was unsuccessful due to the opportunism of the Murcian.
These are the three great variants that have allowed Alcaraz to sign a great tournament at the service: while other more powerful areas of his tennis suffered somewhat more in several games (the rest had a hard time reading several rivals, such as Kecmanovic or Hurkacz), the serve He kept him in even situations and his head and his mentality made the difference in the tense moments. An increasingly complete tennis player, with more variants and with various game plans in almost all areas of his tennis, including what was once his weakness, the service. Almost nothing.
