Roddick on Alcaraz’s serve: “I think it leaves a lot to be desired”
The former American player slammed the two-time major champion for not improving his serve.
Carlos Alcaraz is getting ready to come back to the courts and compete again after featuring in the Australian Open.
The 20-year-old superstar, who was eliminated from the first Grand Slam event of the calendar by Alexander Zverev in the quarterfinals, will be back in Buenos Aires, where he’s the current champion.
The Murcia native, who won his first major at the 2022 US Open and beat Novak Djokovic at the 2023 Wimbledon final, has been criticized for not showing his best version since reining supreme at the All England Club last July.
While he seemed to slow down after the four Grand Slam tournaments over the last two years, his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero admitted there was plenty of work to do regarding that fact, saying that his player should be competitive from the start of the season till November.
Roddick slams Alcaraz for not improving his serve
While former player Paolo Bertolucci said some days ago that Alcaraz is “light years away” from Jannik Sinner’s mental strength, now it’s the former world No. 1 Andy Roddick who has had a shot at the Murcia native.
The 2003 US Open champion pointed out that Alcaraz’s serve is the only thing he hasn’t improved, adding that it tends to be dealt with by his rivals quite easily:
“I think his serve leaves a lot to be desired. That is the one thing that I don’t think has improved much at all in the last two years. I remember watching him, kinda his breakout – we knew about him – but winning Miami a couple of years ago and he was serving 135, and now I feel like he’s serving 127″.
“There’s not a lot of motion to it, right? There are big servers, who serve straight through the court. And so, they’re are the type of servers that serve 136, but if you get a racket on it, you can square it up a little bit”, Roddick added.
He also compared his serve to those of legends like Roger Federer and Pete Sampras, explaining that there’s still a lot of improvement to be done:
“And then there’s like the Federer type servers that can serve 118 and the ball’s sliding against your racket and it just feels a little bit squirrely – so where you’re kind of hitting foul balls off the serve.”
“Alcaraz, if he’s not hitting that kick serve – that’s getting you up and away and out of the zone – it feels like people can firm up his first serve when he goes after it. You need to create a little motion on that serve, he needs to create a little bit of tail”.
“Especially with how good he is on that first ball and how much he can bully you. Right now, even his slice serve feels like it kind of goes straight. It doesn’t have that like Sampras swing on it where it’s tailing away from you and you’re kind of having to chase it”, he said.
At the same time, though, Roddick, who retired with a record of 612–213 (74.2% wins), defended Ferrero’s work with Alcaraz, stating that the former 2003 French Open champion has been key in his player’s progress.