Carlos Alcaraz weakness ‘is a worry’ warns Mats Wilander
Carlos Alcaraz has a big weakness in his serve according to seven-time Slam champion Mats Wilander.
The world number one has not had things easy since topping the rankings by winning the US Open in September. Alcaraz went 1-2 across the Davis Cup and Astana before claiming three wins at the ATP 500 Swiss Indoors Basel last week.
He lost to eventual champion Felix Auger-Aliassime in the semi-finals, his third loss in as many meeting with the 22-year-old.
“The reason why Carlos Alcaraz is going to lose to some of the players at the beginning of his career, more so than the likes of the ‘Big Four’ – because we keep comparing to them, and we should compare to them as they have set the bar so high – is that his weakness is the serve,” Wilander explained to Eurosport.
“I think the reason we have fallen in love with Carlos Alcaraz and the way that he plays matches is that he does not serve well. So every single point that he plays there is a rally and I think people are falling in love with the fact that we are not seeing one-shot rallies. We are seeing five, 10, 15-shot rallies.
“Alcaraz is all over the court, but the downside to that is when you play indoors and you do not have a serve that is reliably good each match and you are not hitting aces. When you run into a physical specimen like Auger-Aliassime, you are going to have a problem.”
Auger-Aliassime despatched Carlos Alcaraz 6-3, 6-2 in the semi-finals of Basel, only the Spaniard’s second straight sets loss of the season.
The Canadian went on to win the title, becoming the third man this season to claim a trophy without dropping serve across an entire tournament.
“So I think that is the area that he has got to improve,” Wilander continued. “But if you look at Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, you do not need to have a huge serve in order to be a competitor in five-set matches. Of course, Roger Federer started serving really well later in his career.
“But on a quick indoor court over three sets, it goes like that. Yes, it is a worry, but it is more a worry about his own game with the first serve.”
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