"I think we have to give him a bit of a break" - Schett on Alcaraz

Barbara Schett thinks Alcaraz should be given a bit of a break from the lofty expectations the tennis world set upon him.

Alcaraz has had a tremendous year so far with a 44-11 record and he has a fairly decent chance to even finish world number one. That seemed impossible a year ago as his goal was to finish inside the top 15 but his tremendous play got him here.

Eurosport tennis analyst Barbara Schett thinks Alcaraz can certainly win the US Open but it won't be easy for him. The victory could actually propel him to number one already:

"If somebody can do it Alcaraz can. He still hasn't lost too many matches this year [eleven]. I wouldn't read too much into those last couple of tournaments [in Montreal and Cincinnati]. So he's had a phenomenal year. I think we have to give him a bit of a break. He's so young, he's still learning, he's still evolving."

Schett believes one of his strengths is being able to find the proper rhythm in a long match. While you can stun him in one or two sets, doing so over five sets is very tricky:

"I think over the course of five sets, for example, he's going to be very tricky to play against because he has so much energy. I think he's learned so much at the Grand Slam events - he probably wanted it a little bit too much this year at the Grand Slams. You cannot write him off just yet just because he had a couple of early-round losses. Alcaraz is one of the players nobody wants to play against in the early rounds at the US Open and he's able to beat pretty much everyone."