Carlos Alcaraz: On the Rise or Heading for a Fall?

Alcaraz at a press conference in Mexico (REUTERS/Henry Romero)

Carlos Alcaraz has managed to establish himself among the best tennis players in the world in 2023. After a 2022 in which he definitively landed in the elite, the Spaniard has taken his stardom one step further this season, winning the second Grand Slam of his career by winning Wimbledon. At 20 years old, he has already accumulated 36 weeks at the top of the ATP ranking, also with a US Open in his bag (in 2022), and 12 titles in total.

Six have arrived in 2023, when the Murcian has won in Buenos Aires, Indian Wells, Barcelona, ​​Madrid, Queen’s and Wimbledon. All of these victories have in common the unavoidable fact that they occurred in the first half of the year. Because it is a reality that Alcaraz has gone from strength to strength during the season: only the contest he starred in at the ATP Finals allowed him to somewhat save the furniture in the second leg of the men’s circuit.

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Since he lifted the trophy on the London grass, something stopped going as well as it had until then for Carlitos. The hard court was difficult for him, without as good a feeling as in the previous tournaments and the Asian tour and the Paris Masters 1000 were especially calamitous. At least, he has the consolation of having been the most notable rival that Novak Djokovic has encountered lately: having avoided the greats of the Serbian, who won all except Wimbledon, is no small thing.

Alcaraz in action in Mexico (REUTERS/Henry Romero)

However, in the world of racket sport there are doubts about whether Alcaraz’s explosiveness can be sustained over time. The one who expresses them now, precisely because of the gradual drop in benefits suffered since August, is Nikolay Davydenko.

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The former Russian player has given an interview to Championat in which, among other things, he refers to Alcaraz. “For the second year in a row, Carlos ran out of strength at the end of the season and suffered injuries, at his age. “Why is this happening?” they asked him. “For me, Alcaraz is very strange. Why is this happening? Because in the Spanish tennis school there is very serious physical activity. They sway unrealistically, they have a supernatural physical condition. They focus on this more than tennis. For them, tennis remains in the background. They say that first you have to run and not get tired, and then play on the other side of the field,” Davydenko explains first.

Therefore, his forecast about the future that may await El Palmar, precisely because of the physical headaches, is not too optimistic. “The body cannot withstand these overloads. Of course, at 20 years old it is too early to suffer the first injuries. Then others will appear: it goes in a chain. Therefore, he will shoot somewhere, but somewhere he can withdraw from the tournament because something happened,” he sentences.

Carlos Alcaraz turned on the Christmas lighting in Murcia

“Even Alcaraz, who, like Nadal in his youth, is a good runner, in tennis terms I cannot say that he exceeds expectations,” he comments at another point in the conversation. “The generation of the big three used to be a little stronger,” he admits regarding the opponents Djokovic faces today.

Nikolay Davydenko in an archive image (EFE)

Davydenko became number three in the world in 2006, with 21 titles as a professional. He won the 2009 ATP Finals and was a four-time semi-finalist in the majors (two at Roland Garros and two at the US Open), as well as Davis Cup champion with Russia in 2006.

2023-12-14 17:17:00
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