Reminder: Keep Watching Carlos Alcaraz
Bold take in my title, I know. A real scorcher. I may be captain obvious, but sometimes we all have to slow down, take inventory, and appreciate what is happening right now, even if it feels like we are, in-fact, stating the obvious.
I think we’re at the point where we should all agree that we have to watch every single match Carlos Alcaraz plays. No matter which round of which tournament, you have to find a way to put him on a screen. I imagine a lot of you are thinking to yourselves, “Yeah dude, no kidding. Where have you been?” After all, Carlos already has two slams, several major titles, and is arguably a party to a couple of historically iconic matches. But I’m not here to talk about his current or projected achievements. Let’s remove context, history, or legacy from the discussion for now. I want to zoom in and focus on the actual tennis shots being played by this dude each time he steps on the court.
At risk of turning people off with a quick NBA player comparison here, Alcaraz reminds me of those late 2010s Steph Curry years from this one perspective: he’s crossed over into that “stop what you’re doing and just watch this guy play” realm. Again, I’m not comparing them on any other aspect except for that. I’m sorry if you’re not a basketball person, but even if you know next to nothing about basketball, you’ve likely seen highlights or simply just heard about Steph Curry doing insane stuff that nobody had ever really done before. If there were a list of players to use to try to entertain your friends who aren’t into tennis, Carlos Alcaraz would certainly be near the top. You could take someone who doesn’t care at all about tennis to an Alcaraz match and they would be taken aback. But even for someone who has watched a lot of tennis over the years, even I feel like I’m going to miss something new if I don’t see him play. Hell, I almost hit the record button for his match against Kecmanovic. Neither that, nor staying up to 2:30 am is completely off the table with this guy. I mean thank God for extended highlights
That is where Carlos Alcaraz is at 20 years old. The guy is a BABY, and he’s out there in slams just making shit up. Seriously, I think he’s just trying things. Tennis players try stupid or confusing things all the time on the tennis court when their scared or just have lapses in judgment. But it looks like Alcaraz tries stuff at times because he’s – dare I say – bored? He’s somehow combining the testing the limits of what is “allowed” on a tennis court but doing it with a certain level of intention that it’s all done on purpose. It’s not luck though or even random, he does things purposefully with the full-fledged belief that it’s going to work that even the best players in world would try as a heat check, if not a joke (assuming they could think of it in the first place).
Go watch the highlights of him playing Sonego, Shang, or Kecmanovic in Australia. I know these players are probably equipped at this stage of their respective careers to challenge Alcaraz over a five-set match (not to mention Shang had to retire due to injury). But Alcaraz legitimately did things in those matches where I thought to myself, “What the hell was that?” Like a genuine question. Not like, damn that was super impressive and only a few people can do that. He does stuff where but I struggle to conceptualize what happened. Did you see the around-the-net pass at 3-3 in the second set and 5-5 in the fourth set against Sonego? What about the sliding conty flick forehand pass against Shang at 1-0 in the second? What about psychotic injections of pace, like inside-out forehand at 1-1 in the 2nd set or the forehand cross to break to go up 3-0 in the third against Kecmanovic. Alcaraz, who if he’s 20 may as well be 13, is doing things like this on a regular basis that I didn’t even know were an option. Even if you think you’ve seen glimpses or parts of what Alcaraz does in other players, like power or touch or speed, I think most would agree that he appears to be a pretty singular amalgamation of abilities at such a young age.
Alcaraz is just starting what we all hope is a long-decorated career, so it’s weird to get near saying things like “Don’t take this for granted because you don’t know how often it will come around.” Typically, those types of statements are reserved for people pushing towards the end of their career, as we try to remind ourselves of the incredible level athletes brought throughout their career, but some type of finality is likely within touching distance. If everything goes to plan, we are nowhere near that phase in Carlos’ career. It’s a long season with a lot of matches. That being said, I think we’re already at the point with a 20-year-old kid where we simply can’t afford to miss any time he plays.
