TENNIS
Alcaraz says he watches videos of Federer and Murray to be better on grass
The Spaniard has started the grass season suffering at the Queen’s opener, but he’s focused on being a better player on this surface.
Carlos Alcaraz had more trouble than expected in his first official match on grass this season, as he defeated Arthur Rinderknech in the tiebreak of the third set.
The French Open semifinalist came from one set down and also from a 0-2 disadvantage in the third to come out on top and ‘survive’ in the tournament, which is played in London.
Alcaraz has probably been working on the mistakes against the Frenchman with his team and will hope to learn from that experience to ‘mature’ as quickly as possible on a surface he’s not used to playing in.
After featuring in the 500 Cinch Tournament, Carlitos will play in the Hurlingham exhibition to stay active before the start of Wimbledon.
Federer and Murray, his role models on grass
The Murcia native star is aware he will need to make quite a few adjustments if he wants to win his second major, especially taking into consideration that he will probably have to deal with Novak Djokovic again and the Serb has won the last four editions.
One of the biggest differences between clay and grass is movement, as in clay Alcaraz was able to get to many balls by sliding, something he isn’t used to doing on grass.
“The most difficult part of playing on grass is being able to move well. You have to be more careful than on the other surfaces, but the most comfortable thing for me is being able to go to the net and play more aggressively all the time”, Alcaraz said.
“There are a lot of players who slide on grass and I’m not one of them, so I have to think a lot more about my movement and be really focused on every move and every shot I make”, he added.
“Speaking for myself, I like to put on videos of Roger Federer and Andy Murray, who are among the players that move best on grass. I’m not going to talk about Djokovic because he slides like he’s on clay and that’s not going to be the case for me”, he stated.
The current US Open champion will be looking to come back to the world No. 1 spot again, something he will do if he wins the title in Queen’s.