"He's just more prone to having the small injuries": Carlos Alcaraz told by Bartoli to watch out in sabotaging his own body

Marion Bartoli cautioned that Carlos Alcaraz should exercise caution regarding the care of his body in the future.

World No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz suffered a painful defeat in the semifinals of the Beijing Open against his rival Jannik Sinner, losing 7-6, 6-1. He is now preparing for his participation in the Shanghai Open, a Masters 1000 event, starting next week.

The 20-year-old tennis player has faced the rise of 22-year-old Jannik Sinner and 20-year-old Holger Rune, who have established themselves as the strongest young players currently and are expected to lead the ATP Tour in the coming years.

Former tennis player Marion Bartoli discussed Alcaraz's style of play and how it could impact his physical well-being on the Tennis Majors podcast. She also mentioned Holger Rune as another young player who needs to take care of his physical health in the future, as he has already faced physical issues:

“Because of the physicality of his game and the way he is playing, he’s just more prone to having the small injuries. They’re not major injuries that put him on the side for a long time, even though last year he missed the year-end championship and therefore the Australian Open this year.”

“I think it’s more due to a different game style,” she explained.

“When we look at Holger, it’s very muscley and now he has this major back injury because you can see everything is just really forced. And it’s the same for Carlos in some sort of ways.”

The Frenchwoman also compared the young stars to the world No. 1 and 24-times Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic, whom she considers the "perfect tennis athlete.”:

“The flexibility, the smoothness, everything moves freely,” she added. It’s something that Alcaraz and Rune might want to emulate later on, as Bartoli told them to “watch out” in case the powerful play styles that helped them break through could be their undoing down the line.

“That’s also why Carlos and Holger got so good so early, as well,” Bartoli continued.

“So it’s the pros and the cons from what their game styles are and the way they are built physically, but for sure they will have to watch out because if they want to last that long it’s going to take a lot out of both of their bodies.”