The
journalist Jon Wertheim commented on
Carlos Alcaraz's drop in performance after
the US Open and compared it to
Serena Williams,
Roger Federer, and Rafael
Nadal.
After
reaching the semifinals of the US Open and losing his position as the world No.
1 to Novak Djokovic, Alcaraz couldn't successfully defend his 2022 crown and
lost it to Djokovic, who won the tournament for the fourth time in his career.
Alcaraz
made it to the semifinals of the ATP 500 Shanghai Open against Jannik Sinner,
and he could only reach the round of 16 in the Shanghai Masters 1000, exiting
the Asian tour without gaining many points and missing the opportunity to put
pressure on Djokovic's world No. 1 ranking.
Jon
Wertheim, a sports journalist, spoke on the Match Point Canada podcast and
mentioned that some tennis legends tend not to show too much interest in
tournaments after the last Grand Slam of the year, citing Serena Williams,
Roger Federer, and
Rafael Nadal, all of whom have won at least 20 Grand Slam
titles and had them as their main focus during their careers.
"Remember
Serena Williams, to some extent Federer and Nadal, they would essentially just
shut it down. I'm out after the US Open. I'm not made to play September,
October, November tennis,” Wertheim said.
"I
think we are getting a little bit of that and I just would not panic too much
if I were an Alcaraz fan, I wouldn't panic too much if I were in his
camp."
"Losing
to Medvedev on the night he didn't quite have it at the US Open, that's one
thing. Losing to Dimitrov is something else. I think some of this is just a
function, honestly. The same thing people say, what's going on with Holger Rune
and I think for some of these players they just hit a wall," he added.
"It's
a lot of tennis, their commitments to play, their commitments from sponsors,
there are still ranking points, there is still a chase for No. 1. I think there
is a finite number of tennis that we can expect from these athletes," he
concluded-