Carlos Alcaraz got to the top 'artificially early' and was thrust into the limelight so soon only due to Novak Djokovic's vaccine status prohibiting him from playing tournaments believes tennis broadcaster, commentator and tennis historian Chris Bowers.
Bowers was left full of praise for Alcaraz calling him the most exciting talents in men's tennis. He won his maiden Grand Slam in an incredible 2022 season at the US Open with five titles in all and became the youngest ever year end World No.1.
But this came at a time when Djokovic was prohibited from playing most tournaments due to his vaccination status stopping him from playing. Even now, he will only return to Indian Wells for the first time since 2019 next month, Bowers believes that it is a basis to judge the Spaniard on.
"I would say, the person I’m most excited about now is Alcaraz. And as I say that it’s easy to say that now because his trajectory is slightly on the down at the moment, he may well come up, win Roland Garros this year,” Bowers said.
"At the moment he’s slightly at the down, doesn’t seem to play too much, partly because he got to the top artificially early because Djokovic wasn’t allowed to play two of the four majors and four of the eight Masters in 2022 because of his vaccine status.
"So I think Alcaraz was slightly thrust into the limelight a little too early, but he is that kind of exciting player that we need, and we were to have in three years time a top 10 including Alcaraz – I suspect Djokovic will be gone by then – [Nick] Kyrgios, [Denis] Shapovalov, [Sebastian] Korda, [Lorenzo] Musetti, that to me would be exciting.
"I have a slight fear there will be players… hang on, I will be honest with you, I found the Djokovic-Murray Grand Slam finals were massively interesting because they were like chess matches, they were cancelling each other out.
"For me, tennis lives off contrasting styles and you need players who play tennis in different ways and I worry that the increase physicality and the technology means that we are getting to a point where everyone plays the same way.”
Novak Djokovic's longevity showed in five different Top 3 he has been part of 2007 1️⃣ Federer 2️⃣ Nadal 3️⃣ Djokovic 2011 1️⃣ Djokovic 2️⃣ Nadal 3️⃣ Federer 2016 1️⃣ Djokovic 2️⃣ Murray 3️⃣ Wawrinka 2021 1️⃣ Djokovic 2️⃣ Medvedev 3️⃣ Zverev 2024 1️⃣ Djokovic 2️⃣ Alcaraz 3️⃣ Sinner
