Tennis Legend Gives Reasons For Carlos Alcaraz’s Decline In Form

Tennis legend identifies reasons behind Carlos Alcaraz’s dip in form as he offers advice

The eight-time Grand Slam winner acknowledges that certain players have figured out how to exploit Alcaraz, but he feels that injuries have hindered his development.

Alcaraz has won two majors in his brief career to date, and after winning the US Open in 2022, he became the youngest player to be ranked No. 1 in the ATP world rankings.

Since his incredible victory at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships in July—his last title—the 20-year-old has faced further difficulties. Following his All England Club triumph at the Cincinnati Masters in August, the world No. 2 advanced to his lone final.

After losing to Alexander Zverev in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open last month, Alcaraz was defeated by Nicolas Jarry in the Argentina Open semifinals held in Buenos Aires. Then, Alcaraz’s ankle sprain prompted him to retire from the ATP 500 tournament in Rio last week during his opening round match.

On March 3, the Spaniard is scheduled to return to action on the court for the “Netflix Slam” exhibition match versus Rafael Nadal in Las Vegas. Afterwards, from March 6–17, he will defend his title in the Masters 1000 competition in Indian Wells.

Former world No. 1 Connors discussed Alcaraz’s recent difficulties on his Advantage Connors podcast and advised him to think about altering his strategy.

“He (Alcaraz) has had some pretty damn good achievements at a very young age. However, that also comes with some injuries that we are aware of,” the American stated.

“I believe that a few players have come to understand how he plays or how to play him. They were somewhat taken aback by what he accomplished so brilliantly at the start. Perhaps they are starting to realize that.

“Perhaps he need to shift gears a bit and try to work out another solution. It’s just minor adjustments along the way that he might be able to make to somewhat neutralize his opponents. It’s not a tremendous shift.

It is possible that he is going through a period of introspection. However, it’s evident that he enjoys playing the game and puts a lot of effort into it. If he wants to stay at the top of the game, he will need to stick practicing that

“[Jannik] Sinner is approaching, and [Holger] Rune is in sight.” Many of these people realize that Rafael Nadal might wait until the French Open to compete in the Olympics and that Roger Federer is no longer among us. Djoker (Novak Djokovic) is still playing, so who knows?

These kids are all attempting to acknowledge that this may actually be them. Now it might be my turn. They are acting like it already and will just make things more difficult for one another.