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Alexander Zverev is no saint. I don’t want to express superficial judgments about certain of his events which caused significant legal consequences and very substantial financial settlements to remedy his behaviour, because I don’t know enough.
But when he says that “We’re both physically strong, but he’s a beast. He is an animal for sure…(“We are both physically strong, but he is a beast. He is an animal for sure”) this time he doesn’t want to offend anyone.
“The intensity he plays with is different from everyone else. He can do a lot of those things. He changed tactics in the fifth set, he started playing much higher, much deeper to prevent me from creating power. He is a fantastic player and physically he is fantastic”.
Be it beast or animal, we are certainly dealing with a phenomenon. Especially when he gets to play his chances in the fifth set. His name is Carlos Alcaraz. He is 21 years and one month old and in his third final he won his third Slam, three out of three (US Open 2022, Wimbledon 2023, Roland Garros 2024), each different from the other (even in terms of surface) as he had never had at his age. nobody did. Not even one of the legendary Fab Four. And I said it all.
He won the first in 4 sets over Ruud, the second in 5 sets over Djokovic, the third again in 5 sets over Zverev. In 12 matches that ended in the fifth set, the bull from Murcia took home 11 of them.
The only match he lost in the fifth was two and a half years ago, with our Berrettini at the 2022 Australian Open. And it was lost only in the final tiebreak (by 7 points to 5). But two and a half years have passed…
Among those won there is only one that required a long-set in the decisive portion: and it’s the one won in the tiebreak with Tsitsipas at the 2020 US Open, when Carlitos was not yet 17 and a half years old. He won all the other fifth sets without ever taking any real risks. In his scores there are no other 7-6s, nor 7-5s: He won 6 decisive sets by playing double the games of his opponents, 6-3; he won another 4 by 6-4; one, finally, was a 6-0.
Two of those eleven successes in the fifth set were achieved – unfortunately – at the expense of our Sinner, at the US Open when he canceled out a matchpoint in the fourth set and won the fifth 6-3 and then here, again 6-3 in fifth. Always match over 4 hours. As was the duration of this Roland Garros final: 4 hours and 19 minutes
Where Carlitos, the eighth Spaniard to triumph in Paris, can be found, after marathons of extraordinary intensity, almost never less than 4 hours and in matches that are clearly of great importance – aren’t all Slam matches? – all that energy to play so wellalways with an impressive and growing tactical clarity during a battle for such a young boy, with an incredible frequency, fielding science fiction shots, both the decidedly explosive ones and the touch ones, just as he did in the last hour and a half game against Zverev, I really don’t know.
Rafa’s tennis has also always been very intense, but at 21 years old it wasn’t really so complete, so varied.
Zverev played well in the final, he was determined and aggressive, no more and no less than he was against Rafa Nadal two years ago and also this year. AND the champion of the last Italian Internationals really didn’t lack confidence, morale, especially after taking the lead in scoring: two sets to one for him and after having recovered from a 2 to 5 which already seemed like a half-sentence.
Yet in the last two heats, Carlitos buried Zverev with winners, from all sides, forehand shots, now very strong backhands, now lifted and long to push far behind the baseline and then surprise him with killer drop-shots. There were many other hard-fought points, the final two sets – despite the clear score of both – were much more electrifying than the first, many more beautiful shots and ferocious rallies. Even if in the end the games were almost always played by the Spaniard. In the last two sets, he only left them three games! But there was no feeling that the match was now decided. Although Zverev would later confess that he “didn’t feel any more strength in his legs than him. Strange, usually I don’t get tired, I don’t get cramps…Who knows, maybe I’ll have to review my athletic preparation a bit”
Zverev has only one small alibi regarding the fifth set: a referee error on the second of the three break points that he had won to reach 2 all in the game following the break suffered. “Being at 2 tied in the fifth instead of 1-3 could also have made a certain difference” said the German world no.4, understandably dejected after the second Slam final he lost and after having been ahead in both, 2 sets to 0 with Thiem in New York 2020, 2 sets to 1 this Sunday.
“In this final I did everything I could. At the US Open I threw it away a bit… it’s something a little different”
When Alcaraz came to the press conference, having meanwhile risen to No. 2 in the world, overtaking Djokovic and 845 points behind No. 1 Jannik Sinner, I couldn’t resist the idea of asking him:
-How do you explain the fact that you arrive here, you say that you don’t feel well prepared and you missed playing three tournaments (Monte Carlo, Madrid, Rome). Then here you play and every time you get to the fourth and fifth set like today you only lose 3 games in total. Of all your fifth sets you only lost one, and you lost it 7-6. How do you explain it. Where do you find all this energy when you get to the final games?
“When I get to the fifth I have to give everything I – and here I have to comment: Carlitos has more to give than anyone else, it’s clear! – that’s where the top players give their best. If I want to be one of the best tennis players in the world I have to do something extra in those moments, I have to show my opponent that I am fresh, as if I were playing the first game of the match. So it works well if my opponent sees that I move well, that I make good shots, that I find good solutions. And of course the mental aspect plays an important part in those moments. That’s why I’m successful in fifth sets, and you have to be successful if you want to win slams.”
Having won the US Open, Carlitos had a small tattoo done on the back of his elbow and won Wimbledon on his right ankle. For the post Roland Garros it will be the left ankle with today’s date and the Eiffel Tower.
Meh, if he continues like this and follows in the footsteps of the Fab Four – in terms of age he could do it, in terms of talent the same – risks covering your entire body, like Fedez. I wouldn’t like it, but not all flavors… they’re vanilla.
I would have liked to ask him if he felt calmer at the beginning of the fifth set when he faced Sinner or rather Zverev. But having already asked one question I couldn’t ask him another. And then I also think that she probably wouldn’t have answered me… so as not to disrespect Zverev!
Made myself clear? For me it is clear that Sinner is his true strongest opponent. On the other hand, it is normal for this to be the case. One, Jannik, is number 1 in the world and from today. The other – him, Carlitos – is number 2. The computer that takes everything into account in the last 12 months… doesn’t care whether Sinner has won just one Slam and Alcaraz has already won three (the US Open doesn’t count for him, more than 12 months have passed). ). The computer has patience. Wait. And he will probably issue a new verdict after Wimbledon. Where Carlitos has to defend the 2,000 points from the triumph from a year ago while Jannik has the 800 from the semi-final. The two duelists will chase each other all year long. And who knows how many more times they will meet.
Any advice for Jannik? Well, if you can avoid the fifth set. Which doesn’t mean – I have to explain it for certain less perceptive readers who attribute to me non-existent dislikes for Jannik for whom I instead feel a very lively sympathy and great esteem – that I should force myself to lose in three or four.
