While in Buenos Aires, Carlos Alcaraz received a fresh haircut in anticipation of his second competition in 2024—the Argentina Open.
At the Australian Open, Alcaraz began his 2024 campaign by defeating Richard Gasquet 7-6(5), 6-1, 6-2. He then defeated Lorenzo Sonego 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-3, 7-6(3). Against Juncheng Shang, the Spaniard was up 6-1, 6-1, 1-0 when the latter retired with an injury.
6-4, 6-4, 6-0, Alcaraz’s victory guaranteed him a spot in the quarterfinals. He lost 1-6, 3-6, 7-6(2), 4-6 against Alexander Zverev, the sixth seed in this match.
With a few emojis as a comment, the Spaniard recently shared photos of his new haircut on Instagram Stories.
With 9255 points, Carlos Alcaraz is presently ranked second in the ATP rankings, exactly 600 points behind World No. 1 Novak Djokovic.
After winning the ATP 250 competition the previous year, Carlos Alcaraz will be the defending champion at the 2024 Argentina Open. The Spaniard defeated Laslo Djere, Dusan Lajovic, and Bernabe Zapata Miralles to earn the top seed in Buenos Aires in 2023 and go to the final.
He defeated Cameron Norrie 6-3, 7-5 in this match to claim his first title of the 2023 campaign. Alcaraz will only be the third player in the Open Era to successfully defend their title at the tournament if he wins the Argentina Open in 2024; the other two players are David Ferrer and Guillermo Vilas.
The Spaniard is slated to compete at the Rio Open, where he is the top seed, following the event in Buenos Aires. Alcaraz defeated Diego Schwartzman in the championship match to win the ATP 500 event in 2022. In 2023, he made it to the title match in Rio but lost to Cameron Norrie 5-7, 6-4, 7-5.
Alcaraz will be traveling to the United States following the South American clay swing, where he will be defending his title at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.
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Andy Roddick, the former US Open champion, has defended Juan Carlos Ferrero, Carlos Alcaraz’s full-time coach. This occurs only a few days after Roddick questioned Alcaraz’s capacity to serve.
After winning Wimbledon in July 2023, Alcaraz has not been able to win any more championships. He hasn’t been able to add to his trophy collection, despite the fact that he has advanced far in most of the eight events he has participated in since then. Most recently, in the Australian Open quarterfinals of 2024, he suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Alexander Zverev.
The Spaniard’s title drought, according to Andy Roddick, has been caused by his recent lack of bite in his serve.
Alcaraz’s serve has lost movement and pace, according to the American during a conversation with tennis journalist Jon Wertheim on a recent episode of the podcast Served with Andy Roddick. In addition, he mentioned that adversaries are able to read and track the trajectory.
“An ideal moment for Andy Roddick. The user stated, “Alcaraz needs a different coach who can teach him how to serve.
Nevertheless, Roddick rejected the user’s suggestion and acknowledged Juan Carlos Ferrero’s achievements, noting:
“There’s no doubt that Carlos Alcaraz doesn’t require another coach. Juan Carlos Ferrero, or JCF, has been fantastic. Even if he claims his serve hasn’t gotten better, that doesn’t mean it hasn’t. Quite different from where he was even a year ago. They’ve produced incredible work.
