Reason why Carlos Alcaraz struggles on indoor hard courts

Today at 08:00 AM

Carlos Alcaraz is perhaps the most versatile and complete player on the ATP tour, having a lot of hits and solutions in his arsenal. The young Spanish champion has already proven himself to be able to win on any surface and has become the youngest player ever to win the French Open and the Wimbledon Championships in the same season.

As if that were not enough, the former world number 1 won the tournaments on the hard courts of Indian Wells and Beijing in 2024. The 21-year-old from Murcia has created a truly electrifying rivalry with current world number one Jannik Sinner - who has lost only six matches since January - but has been defeated three times out of three by Carlitos in official matches this year.

The two young champions - who are destined to monopolize the professional tour for at least the next ten years - also faced each other in the final of the 'Six Kings Slam', a tournament/exhibition that took place in Saudi Arabia last weekend. After losing the first set, Jannik took control of the rallies and was able to prevail thanks to the crucial support of the servant. The feeling is that - in indoor conditions - the Italian ace has something more than the 4-time Grand Slam champion.

If there is one surface on which Alcaraz still cannot express his best tennis, it is undoubtedly the indoor hard courts. Last year, the Spanish champion struggled a lot in the last part of the season and suffered several unexpected defeats. Carlitos was beaten by Roman Safiullin in Paris-Bercy, before giving way to 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic in the semi-final of the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin.

The 21-year-old from Murcia cannot make good use of his serve full on indoor hard courts and the speed of the surface does not allow him to use his variations against very powerful opponents from the baseline. During a recent interview with Sky Sport Italy, Roger Federer’s former coach Ivan Ljubicic explained how Sinner is favored over Alcaraz at the ATP Finals: "Yes, for me, Jannik is the dark horse. Also because Alcaraz still has to convince me on indoor courts. He has a very high level on hard court, but even in Turin last year, he struggled a lot on indoor courts, especially from a mental perspective. Let's see if that changes this year. If we want to look for someone closer to Jannik, I would say Zverev.”

The former world number 1 has plenty of time to improve in these conditions and his hard work with coach Juan Carlos Ferrero has already yielded some results. Carlitos played a great match against Sinner in Saudi Arabia, but his level dropped in the second half of the match.

In a recent interview, the Spaniard confessed that he doesn’t particularly like playing indoor: “I’m not used to play so many indoors, so for me it’s always great to have matches in my bag in the indoor courts just to get ready on it and try to play better. Right now until the ATP Finals end of the year, I’m going to try to play as much matches as I can. Right now is the indoor swing, so I try to get better every tournament, every match that I’m going to play.”

After playing in Saudi Arabia, the former world number 1 has decided not to play in either Basel or Vienna this week. Carlos is resting and practicing for the last three tournaments of 2024. The four-time Grand Slam champion will play the Paris-Bercy Masters 1000 next week, where he was eliminated in the second round last year. Then he will fly to Turin for the Nitto ATP Finals, before helping his Spain in the Davis Cup Finals in Malaga.

Alcaraz will be the leader of Spain on a very special occasion, because it will be the last official event of Rafa Nadal’s career. The 22-time Grand Slam champion will retire at 38 years old after making tennis history. The young Spaniard commented on Rafa’s decision to retire: "I was in shock a little bit. I saw it like one hour before the match, so I had time to accept it and forget it a little bit before the match.

It is a really difficult thing, really difficult news for everybody, and even tougher for me. He has been my idol since I start playing tennis. I look up to him. Thanks to him, I really wanted to become a tennis player. Losing him, in a certain way, is going to be difficult for us, so I will try to enjoy as much as I can when he's going to play.”