Andy Roddick compared Carlos Alcaraz to Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic, suggesting that the Spaniard makes more mistakes than the Big Three players.
Alcaraz is one of the best players in the world and certainly one of the best young players we’ve ever seen. The sheer fact that he’s the youngest man to ever reach the number one rank speaks loud to that.
As such, he’s being compared to some really big names, the biggest we have ever had in tennis. Comparing a young player like Alcaraz to the likes of Djokovic, Federer, and Nadal is not fair because of how amazing they were, but it speaks to how good the young Spaniard really is.
If you have to compare him to legends to find similarities, then it’s pretty clear that this isn’t some regular player. He is quite special; some argued even better than the Big Three were at that age, but some things are clearly different.
As someone who played all three, Roddick pointed out the difference in his most recent podcast episode.
“[Carlos] Alcaraz is like this insane thing to watch because he has all the shots and he can do everything, but he always takes his shot. With Roger [Federer], you always felt like you were playing on his terms, especially later in his career when he had lost maybe half a step, it was on his terms.”
The Spaniard is certainly a phenom, and he’s still only 21. There is plenty of time for him to grow his game and become even better, because it’s clear that while he can be better than the Big Three at 21, he’s quite far from Big Three’s level at their respective peaks.
“Alcaraz still makes way more errors than prime Federer, [Rafael] Nadal, and [Novak] Djokovic, way more unforced errors. But most of the errors are on his terms. He’s trying to do something. He might miss a forehand wildly, but you’re going, ‘That was probably the right shot. He just missed it.”
Leave a Reply