"He just didn’t really play that well" - Room for improvement needed for Carlos Alcaraz according to McEnroe and Henman after opening two showings

Carlos Alcaraz continues to make strides in the 2026 Australian Open after picking up an important second round victory over Yannick Hanfmann. While he marches on, the performance was not met with the usual praise normally sung when speaking on the Spaniard, with John McEnroe and Tim Henman expecting more.

It has not been happy hunting ground Down Under for the world No.1, who has never made it past the quarter-finals in this event, falling at that stage in the prior two events. This year, he is more motivated than ever to get the job done and win the final major title needed to complete the collection, with the career Grand Slam perilously close.

However, there is a lot of tennis to be played before that dream can be realised. He began the event with a controlled win over Adam Walton, but again not at his imperious best with the Aussie having some joy, but in the end nowhere near the level that Alcaraz portrayed on court. Hanfmann proved to be a bit more of a challenge, especially in the early stages when he produced a high level on court. Nevertheless, if you are going to beat the best in the world you have to replicate this game for the whole match, and the German was unable to complete this. This resulted in Alcaraz breezing to victory and the third round.

Despite winning the match, McEnroe was not offering the six-time Grand Slam champion his flowers. “You know, he came out sort of, and wasn’t clicking, Alcaraz, and Hanfmann actually had, you know, early chances to get ahead and rattle Alcaraz,” the American said on TNT Sports after the conclusion to the match.

“He did that a little bit in the first set, and honestly, Alcaraz was lucky to win that set in a way. He just didn’t really play that well, of course the top guys want to save it for the second week. But you can’t bank on it. But he settled in as the match went on started doing his thing a little better."

It is still the early stages of the tournament, with the best players in the world able to not play at their best and get away with it, or even dwell on it with them going up another level in week two. However, McEnroe is not counting on Alcaraz to do that as a guarantee. “But he’s not gonna look at this match and be like, ‘wow, okay, that’s where I need to be’, because he’s definitely got some room for improvement," he stated.

Henman was somewhat in the same boat as his fellow pundit, with the former British number one feeling he needs to focus on the performance over spectacular and showstopping shots. “He can hit every shot, but sometimes he’s, you know, wanting to lengthen his highlight reel with all these incredible shots and sometimes I feel like he needs to rein it in a little bit," he openly admitted.

A big factor in this could be the ominous presence of his rival Jannik Sinner, looking for a hat-trick of Australian Open titles. “But then you’ve got his great rival Jannik Sinner who’s saying he wants to bring a little more variation to his game — there’s no doubt that he is using that drop shot a little bit more. Sinner is perhaps finishing a few more points at the net, so yeah, interesting contrast, but yeah, I think Alcaraz has definitely got room for improvement.”

This room for improvement could be seen in his third round match in a first-time meeting against Corentin Moutet on Friday, January 23.