"He's a dangerous contender" - Corretja on Alcaraz at Wimbledon

Carlos Alcaraz’s explosiveness makes him a Wimbledon contender despite the lack of warm-up matches on grass, according to Eurosport expert Alex Corretja.

The 19-year-old Spaniard has not played since his French Open quarter-final exit to Alexander Zverev. Alcaraz played the invitation event at the Hurlingham Club in London this week, with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic set to feature as well. He lost to Frances Tiafoe in straight sets playing with a heavily strapped elbow.

Speaking about him at Wimbledon, Corretja said:

“I'm sure he would have loved to play a few more matches. I hope it's going to be enough. On grass, it depends also if you play someone that is a specialist or not, but if he has a chance to play a couple of matches on those courts and he gets the confidence back, he's going to be dangerous."

Winning Wimbledon this year could be a tall order, especially with Djokovic and Nadal the top two seeds, but Corretja says Alcaraz has the tools to threaten:

“Carlos Alcaraz is very inspiring, he just goes with the flow. He works hard. I think it was good for him to stop after Roland-Garros, losing in the quarter-finals against Zverev – such a tough match – and then he took time off. "He won Miami, he won Barcelona, he won Madrid, and all of a sudden you are at Roland-Garros like, okay, now you have to win as well."

Corretja finsihed off with:

“You need to be aggressive. He is aggressive. You need to have a shot where you can hurt the opponent. He's got a great forehand. Nice backhand. He's improving his serve, he's returning well. So we will see how he adjusts because he didn't have that many matches on grass and sometimes this is not easy, but he's doing a calendar like the big champions, reserving himself for the important moments and taking time off just to be ready for the majors.”