A weak point to improve, as young as he is, with so many training sessions ahead, or a trauma to carry, something that can hinder his career and limit his successes. At the beginning of this 2024, Carlos Alcaraz It is at a very interesting moment in its progression: it has a deficiency. While most of his rivals, Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner o Daniil Medvedev, are lethal when they can break the opponent’s service, he is not yet. According to statistics, last season he was the second best returner on the ATP circuit -behind Medvedev-, but he fell to number 35 in efficiency with breaks.
During the preseason, his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, he insisted in that section, on multiplying his danger, and in the current Australian Open he is doing it. If it improves during the Grand Slam – and throughout the season – the defect will be left behind, but it could become a problem if it is repeated in several matches.
In the first round of the Grand Slam, against the Frenchman Richard Gasquet, His 0 of 9 converted break opportunities in the first set set off alarm bells. What if there was really something to worry about? A 20-year-old tennis player will always have aspects in which to learn, but psychologically you have to know how to accept it. That is why it was important that this Tuesday in the second round, against the Italian Lorenzo Sonego, Alcaraz responded in break situations and he did. His absolute effectiveness in the third and fourth sets allowed him to close a victory 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-3 and 7-6 (4) in three hours and 24 minutes.
Faced with Sonego’s aggressiveness and his hardness with his forehand, the match could have been complicated if the Spaniard had wasted his best balls and the opposite happened. Faced with the firmness of his rival, he put more firmness. The Chinese await him in the third round Shang Juncheng, sensation at 18 years old, but the Spaniard will already arrive with his homework done.
“I try not to let it affect me”
“When I miss a break ball I try not to think about it, but obviously that thought is always there, thinking about the opportunities that you have taken advantage of, all those break balls. It’s something that I have to improve, it has always been difficult for me. “I make breaks a lot and I usually need a lot of opportunities in most games. It’s something I want to improve,” Alcaraz confessed in Melbourne when they asked for an analysis of his defect. “Something that I am improving and training is to try not to let that affect me, to forget those opportunities that have been wasted and to try to look forward, think point by point,” added the number two in the world ranking who was again very solid in the rest of aspects of his game.
Except in the tie break of the second set and in a strange game in the fourth period, he was infallible with his serve and was more accurate with his forehand than in the previous match with Gasquet. In great physical condition, he shines on his horizon at the Australian Open if he continues to improve on his weak point, converting his breaking balls.