Carlos Alcaraz explains why his play style is not like Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal’s

Carlos Alcaraz broke onto the scene at just the right moment for men’s tennis, arriving as questions grew about what would happen to the sport after the Big Three had moved on.

Yet again, though, tennis found a way to fill the gap. The Spaniard climbed quickly through the rankings and picked up where Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer left off.

Now, he’s even surpassed Novak Djokovic in terms of consistency. In fact, many now see him as having established himself as a level above the rest of the field.

Even so, comparisons with Djokovic, Nadal and Federer keep coming up. For some fans and analysts, it’s becoming a regular talking point.”

Carlos Alcaraz responds to ongoing comparisons to the Big Three

Speaking to Spanish media after booking his place in another final, the conversation shifted again to the ongoing comparisons between him and the Big Three.

Given his success, it’s understandable why those links keep coming up. But from a stylistic perspective, Alcaraz doesn’t see the similarities.

He explained: “That’s my style, that’s me, that’s how I grew up. Obviously, I admired Roger and Rafa when I was younger, I tried to imitate their shots. But as you get older, you just try to define yourself, define your type of tennis. I think that’s what I did.

“At one point, I knew what my style was and started practising it. Now it comes out naturally. People talk about similarities because of how influential the Big Three have been,” he said.

“But everyone has their own style in this sport; no one is copying anyone else. For me, it’s just Carlos.”

Carlos Alcaraz jokes about copying Novak Djokovic’s serve

Carlos Alcaraz’s sustained success is largely built on his willingness to always look for ways to get better. It’s that constant drive for improvement that has helped him stay ahead of the chasing pack.

One area where he made real progress recently is his serve. Last year, it became a much more reliable weapon after plenty of work behind the scenes.

Even after using it to help win the US Open, he wasn’t satisfied. By the start of this year’s Australian Open, he’d already made more tweaks.

The new motion drew comparisons to Djokovic, and Alcaraz was quick to address them in his own way: “You wanted to say it’s really similar to Djokovic serve (smiling). I know you want to.”

He went on: “I wasn’t thinking about making the same serve as Djokovic. But at the end, I can even see the similarities.”

Alcaraz later shared a message from Djokovic himself: “One day, I woke up and had a message from Novak. He told me: ‘Well, you’re going to have to pay me for the serve before the season starts’. It was amusing. His serve is one of the most precise we’ve ever seen, so it’s a good source of inspiration.”

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