'Strange' Carlos Alcaraz taught to focus on 'supernatural fitness' instead of tennis says Nikolay Davydenko

Retired Russian tennis player, Nikolay Davydenko believes that being Spanish could be a theory behind Carlos Alcaraz' drop-off towards the end of the season and said that this was 'strange'.

He suggested that the Spaniard is being taught to focus on 'supernatural fitness' instead of tennis which is proving to be his downfall. He cited Spaniards in general saying that they are first taught how to run and then they get taught how to play after the fact.

Alcaraz missed the Australian Open with injury, but was epic in the middle portion of the year winning Indian Wells, Madrid and Wimbledon. Albeit in pursuit of the World No.1 spot after a failed US Open, he had a downward trend heading towards the ATP Finals and failed to finish top despite playing a lot more tennis than Novak Djokovic. Davydenko also believes that more injuries will manifest themselves as the body cannot cope with the overload needed to keep playing on.

“For me, Alcaraz is very strange. Why is this happening? Because in the Spanish school of tennis there is very serious physical activity. They swing unrealistically, they have supernatural physical fitness,” Davydenko said.

“They focus on this more than on tennis. For them, tennis is in the background. They say that first of all you need to run and not get tired, and then play on the other side of the court,” he continued.

“The body cannot withstand these overloads. Of course, at 20 years old it is too early to get your first injuries. Then others will appear - it goes in a chain. Therefore, he will shoot somewhere, but somewhere he may withdraw from the tournament because something happened,” the Russian said.