Carlos Alcaraz cannot play at his best for a whole match

Carlos Alcaraz’s game is one of the most difficult of all to implement, because it involves many high-risk shots and requires you to always be in top physical shape. For this reason, the former world number 1 has had several ups and downs during this season that have prevented him from approaching the first position in the ATP ranking.

The 21-year-old from Murcia lifted the trophy in Paris and London, won the Indian Wells Masters 1000 for the second year in a row and clinched the silver medal for his country at the Paris Olympics, but ended 2024 in third place and is almost 5000 points behind his great rival Jannik Sinner (and behind German ace Sascha Zverev).

Carlitos has admitted several times that the Italian ace represents his perfect nemesis, being the only player able to counter him among the exponents of the Next Gen. The Spaniard was earlier than the Italian, having started winning big titles as early as 2022, but Jannik has made impressive improvements over the past twelve months.

The world No. 1 has improved his serve, makes very few unforced errors and has suffered only six defeats from January until today. Everyone knows that Alcaraz will have to do a great job during the pre-season to shine in 2025, avoiding those drops during the year that are affecting his ranking.

The young Spaniard’s 2025 will begin directly at the Australian Open, in which he will try to win the fifth Major title of his career. The 21-year-old from Murcia reached the quarterfinals as his best result in Melbourne and usually struggles to play his best tennis at the beginning of the season.

Alcaraz can create more

The 4-time Grand Slam champion will carry out part of his preparation with Jack Draper, who impressed everyone in 2024 by reaching his first Major semifinal in New York (he lost to World No.1 Sinner).

On the latest edition of ‘Eye of the Coach’, top coach Patrick Mouratoglou reflected on the differences between Jannik and Carlitos: “Alcaraz can create more. He has this extra power and he can fight with him in terms of movement also.

The thing is, Alcaraz is making quite a lot of unforced errors whereas Sinner doesn’t, so the matches between them, there are a lot of ups and downs and it changes often.”