TENNIS
Fritz believes Alcaraz is more complete than the ‘Big Three’
The American tennis player said that tennis star Carlos Alcaraz has more tools in his arsenal than the likes of Djokovic, Nadal, and Federer at his age.
Carlos Alcaraz wasn’t able to complete the ‘Double Sunshine’ in Miami, but he once again delivered great performances on the court and got a special compliment from one of the most in-form players in the world.
No. 1 American player Taylor Fritz, who lost to the Spanish talent in the quarterfinals in two sets (4-6, 2-6), said that Alcaraz compares favorably to tennis’s ‘Big Three’ of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer.
“I said it a year ago when I watched him [Alcaraz] play, for how young he is, he just has all the tools. He can come to the net, he can drop shot you, he can lob you, he’s incredibly fast, he has all the power, his forehand is good, his backhand is good”, Fritz admitted.
“It’s very rare to see someone so young so… developed in his game and not really have anything that he needs to work on so much. He has tons of different ways to play, and he can incorporate tons of different game plans to play different players because he has so many tools to win a match”, he added.
Alcaraz beats the ‘Big Three’
Although Carlitos was eliminated by Jannick Sinner in the semifinals, he proved again he’s a tennis player who’s in constant development and is getting better every time he competes.
According to Fritz, the intensity of Alcaraz’s game and his power shots make him an even tougher opponent than the all-time greats Novak Djokovic, Rafa Nadal, and Roger Federer:
“I felt like I had more breathing room against those guys [Djokovic, Nadal, and Federer] than in the match against Alcaraz. Novak will have these long rallies, but he’ll kind of slowly get you out of position and overwhelm me. I still feel like I can hang in these rallies for a long time and get more chances to attack”.
“I think that I’d go back to the first couple games of the match. He [Alcaraz] just hits winners and shots that hurt me off of a lot of shots that people normally aren’t hurting me off”, Fritz concluded.
Both Fritz and Alcaraz will have to readapt their game from quick to slower surfaces, as the clay court season has already started with some ÁTP 250 events. They will return to competition in Monte Carlo (9-16th April), the first of three Masters 1000 tournaments before Roland Garros.