Despite winning two Grand Slams and reaching the World No.1 ranking, Spanish tennis star Carlos Alcaraz has been encouraged by retired player Andy Roddick to incorporate "more boring" aspects into his game to become the best version of himself.
Alcaraz has been compared to tennis legends Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, as the rising star continues to accumulate accolades in his very young career. The 20-year old has won two Grand Slam titles, at the 2022 US Open and 2023 Wimbledon Championships. However, Roddick believes Alcaraz should model his game after Novak Djokovic, the third member of the Big Three.
On a recent episode of his Served podcast, former World No.1 Roddick believes that although Alcaraz has the skill and physicality of Federer and Nadal respectively, he could add some more 'boring' aspects of Djokovic's gameplay to become a better player overall.
“I think in our generation it was like the players wanted to watch Roger because he could do things racquet skill-wise," said the American. " And Rafa was like this blunt force trauma of physicality and spin. And Novak is like a wrestler who gets you into holds that you can’t get out of. Whereas, Roger kind of had this grace and he would come out with shots that looked like he was playing video games.
“And now Alcaraz is almost like a combination of all three. He’s still finding his way. I think the best version of himself will be when he gets a little more Novak into his game, where he makes things a little more boring and isn’t spectacular all the time. When I was with Andre Agassi in Vegas, that’s kind of what he was saying is that he is so spectacular that the next point of success is becoming maybe a little bit more boring on court and kind of getting people and locking them down and not throwing as many uppercuts."