Hugh Clarke had a 3 part article on the movement of the Big 3 and how guys like Nadal and Djokovic personified the modern tennis players movement. Essentially, these guys are sliding East-West on all surfaces like they were clay courts.
No doubt Alcaraz and his peers have such movement down pat. But what separates him from his peers is his North-South game. Alcaraz pushes his opponents South with his big booming forehand and then draws them north via well disguised drop shots from both wings. As Wimbledon proved, this is a nightmare to play against.
An interesting question is, what attributes would a player need to have to counter Alcaraz's game? I'll start by saying, perhaps a peak Wawrinka. Big accurate serve, high rally tolerance and big power from both wings. This is what makes Sinner interesting in that he's capable of such a game but his fitness remains a question.
What do you guys think?
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I agree with a lot of what Izzle has written above. If we take Djokovic out of the conversation for a minute, I think only Sinner and Medvedev have the shot consistency to hang with Charlie. The problem with Medvedev is that although he is a wall and gets everything back, so does Charlie and he also has the variety with coming to the net and excellent drop shots to keep Meddy off balance.
As for Sinner, tons to like about his game and he does hit very hard off both wings. That along with shot tolerance are the main reasons he gives Charlie trouble. I see those guys being ranked #1 and #2 for the foreseeable future and that's the main concern regarding Jannik as he still has the tendency to breakdown and have conditioning issues the further he goes in grand slams.
It is going to be awesome to watch how this rivalry unfolds, though. Two guys to keep an eye on though in the future are Jiri Lehecka and Jakub Menšík, they both hit big off both wings and in my opinion are future top 10 players, it's only a matter of time.
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I agree with a lot of what Izzle has written above. If we take Djokovic out of the conversation for a minute, I think only Sinner and Medvedev have the shot consistency to hang with Charlie. The problem with Medvedev is that although he is a wall and gets everything back, so does Charlie and he also has the variety with coming to the net and excellent drop shots to keep Meddy off balance.
As for Sinner, tons to like about his game and he does hit very hard off both wings. That along with shot tolerance are the main reasons he gives Charlie trouble. I see those guys being ranked #1 and #2 for the foreseeable future and that's the main concern regarding Jannik as he still has the tendency to breakdown and have conditioning issues the further he goes in grand slams.
It is going to be awesome to watch how this rivalry unfolds, though. Two guys to keep an eye on though in the future are Jiri Lehecka and Jakub Menšík, they both hit big off both wings and in my opinion are future top 10 players, it's only a matter of time.
Thanks for the heads up on Lehecka and Mensik. Will watch out for them.
Another prototype player that I think could trouble Alcaraz is a Pete Sampras type S&Ver. A fast unreadable serve (ie can't easily distinguish between T serve or out wide. We saw Alcaraz get a read on the Djokovic serve in that he came in given the Djokovic toss), it clipping the lines and then the prototype player comes in to the net to put away the volley. You could see Djokovic try to do this but his spot serves lacked the speed and the net game is no where close to natural. Then this prototype player is not tired during their own service games and has a chance to try and break on Alcaraz's serve. And at the same time this could tire out Alcaraz cos you know he's going to chase down everything even if the serve+1 is a volley. Probably leads to a ton of tie breaks. I think Alcaraz counters by standing further back and trying to take a big cut on the forehand hoping his topspin will let the ball land in. But then again the prototype player might be ready at the net for an easy, assured volley.
Last edited by Izzle; 07-15-2024 at 03:34 PM.
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Interesting topic. The Wawrinka model, I'm not actually sure that's a true player prototype at all. Even though he managed to do it 3 times, I actually put Stanimal in same category as peak Delpo or Cilic. Completely utterly unplayable during the slams they won, but if that was truly what their games looked like on the daily, they would all have been world #1s with double digit slams.
The Sampras model is intriguing, because Pistol himself said that his game with modern racquet technology would have been something else entirely. I just can't help but feel that the super S&V prototype has been bred out of the game for the same reasons the OHBH is all but extinct at the top of the rankings. Maybe there just hasn't been a generational talent that's tried to be this type of player due to modern coaching, but I don't think you can get away anymore without a dominating baseline game no matter how good you are at the net. Surfaces, equipment, balls, and fitness/movement have taken care of that. I see this running forehand recovery comparison from Hugh Clarke and can't help but think today's pace would be too much for Pete
So my anti-Alcaraz model then will have a huge, reliable serve, impenetrable baseline game with excellent redirection skills from both wings to take away time from the big Carlos forehand wind-up. That would be Sinner, and then I'd add better match endurance, and more variety for spin/slice to better utilize the forecourt. Besides fitness/injuries my main criticism of Sinner is predictability. Just like with Iga, even if you know what he's going to do, he executes so well that it doesn't matter most of the time. But Carlos is a chameleon and is getting better at adapting from match to match and now even game to game. So you have to counter that by being a bit of a chameleon yourself.
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Two guys to keep an eye on though in the future are Jiri Lehecka and Jakub Menšík, they both hit big off both wings and in my opinion are future top 10 players, it's only a matter of time.
I haven't seen much about Joao Fonseca lately but are we still looking at him as a future top 5 talent?
In 2008 a prime Federer needed a third set tie breaker to beat 36 year old Sampras in New York. IMO prime Sampras would destroy 99.99% of today's field given a modern racket especially on grass.
Can you tell Sampras is my 2nd favorite player ever haha
I haven't seen much about Joao Fonseca lately but are we still looking at him as a future top 5 talent?
Fonseca is certainly one to keep an eye on as well. He turns 18 next month and while he will still have to go through qualies (unless he's given wild cards) to ATP tourneys, his future looks very bright. I think the plan is to let him cook on the Challenger Tour for a little bit unless he decides to accelerate his development.
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In 2008 a prime Federer needed a third set tie breaker to beat 36 year old Sampras in New York. IMO prime Sampras would destroy 99.99% of today's field given a modern racket especially on grass.
Can you tell Sampras is my 2nd favorite player ever haha
I’ll never forgive Pete for giving Roger mono during that exhibition, throwing off most of his season in an Olympic year, not getting back on track till the USO. Pete knew what he was doing with Roger only 2 slams away from tying him at that point.
Rune just retired against Arthur File in Hamburg - Not sure what the issue is, he did have a knee issue coming into this tourney. The Dane has not had a good 2024, struggling with injuries and trying to find his best form.
