French Open 2022: Carlos Alcaraz - the steep rise of "Carlito"
Carlos Alcaraz will play against Alexander Zverev at the French Open 2022 tomorrow, Tuesday, for the first time in the semi-finals of a Grand Slam tournament. The rise of the Spanish teenager to the top of the world was rapid.
by Jörg Allmeroth
last edit:
May 30, 2022, 03:39 pm

Mats Wilander was once asked what amazes him most about Carlos Alcaraz. The former world number one and seven-time Grand Slam champion didn't have to think long: "The self-image with which he moves on the big stage," said the 57-year-old Swede, a valued TV expert, "it works everything to him as if he had been at the top of the world for many years.” Wilander is well versed in these matters, having won the first of three titles at the Stade Roland Garros in 1982 when he was just 17 years old.
Alcaraz, the man who will face Alexander Zverev in the quarterfinals of the French Open on Tuesday, is - strictly speaking - still a newcomer. 2022 is only the second season that he is doing in big tour tennis. But what a season it is for the Spaniard, who recently turned 19: When he traveled to the Grand Slam slide games under the Eiffel Tower, he already had four titles in his luggage, two of them at Masters level. At the top competition in Madrid at the beginning of May, he beat grandmasters Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic on the way to the cup coup - and then allowed Zverev a total of four games in the final at 6: 3, 6: 1. In mock humility, but by no means entirely wrong at heart, Zverev explained at the time: "He's the best player in the world at the moment."
Alcaraz with the best point average on the tour
Alcaraz' rapid rise documents his exceptional class: Two years ago he was still floating around in places above 300 in the world rankings, in spring 2021 he just broke through into the top 100. Now, as a matter of course, he is listed as one of the top ten players. Sixth place in the best ranking shows him as one of the closest pursuers of the really big names in the industry. In the 2022 annual ranking, Alcaraz even has the best point average in just seven tournaments played, better than the competitors Nadal and Stefanos Tsitsipas (Greece) in front of him. The beefy, stocky Alcaraz achieved early on what many colleagues stubbornly failed to achieve throughout their careers: consistency at a high, even the highest level. And practically no dropouts on the challenging trip across continents and through time zones.
Like his compatriot Nadal, Alcaraz acquired the necessary competitive toughness in smaller tournaments early on - against much older, more experienced opponents. His playing seems mature, variable, creative. You can tell the school of his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero, who took first place as a professional and also the French Open throne. Ferrero and Alcaraz share the dislike of monotonous boom-boom tennis from the baseline, the no to an attitude that relies only on speed and power. And yet this also applies: Hardly anyone in the entire tennis circus can hit the ball as hard as Alcaraz, if he wants it and thinks it is necessary. "Inhuman" is the pressure that "Carlito" can exert, even Djokovic was recently quoted as saying, "you can feel like a sandbag."
Not easy games against Korda and Khachanov
Alcaraz also seems nervous enough to be able to seriously consider Grand Slam successes early on. Again and again this season he unleashed himself in top games out of distress and need, winning time and time again the all-important big points. When he had to fend off a match point against his savvy compatriot Albert Ramos Vinolas in the second round of the French Open, he did it without a trace of panic and hectic. In that game he also caught up a 0:3 deficit in the fifth set. Since then he has never been in trouble at the French Open and won the by no means easy games against the American Sebastian Korda and the Russian Karen Khachanov without losing a set.
Zverev will also feel the self-confidence of the young Spaniard, who sailed into the peak phase of the tournament with a lot of tailwind. The Olympic champion lamented, slightly annoyed after his lackluster knockout round win over Bernabe Zapata Miralles, that Alcaraz was receiving inappropriate preferential treatment in Paris and that he had played on Center Court too often so far. The "other players", according to Zverev, are too often left out. In order to appear on the best courts even at prime time, Zverev has to do one thing best: beat Alcaraz.
Here the individual tableau in Roland Garros
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