Former World No. 18 and ESPN commentator Alexandra Stevenson has shared her thoughts on Carlos Alcaraz while also talking about her retirement from the sport.

It has been twelve months since World No. 2 Alcaraz won his first Grand Slam title at the 2022 US Open. The Spaniard ousted Casper Ruud 6-4, 2-6, 7-6, 6-3 at Flushing Meadows and subsequently rose to the top of the ATP Ranking for the first time.

In the same month, 20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer retired after playing his final match at the Laver Cup, signaling the end of the Big Three's collective dominance over the sport.

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Stevenson says Alcaraz has "re-invigorated" men's tennis

Since then, the 20-year-old has gone on to win a second Grand Slam title at Wimbledon, where he defeated seven-time SW19 champion Djokovic in a five-set battle.

Although the latter has since overtaken him in the ATP Ranking after winning his record 24th major title at this year's US Open, Stevenson said that Alcaraz has brought a new energy to the men's game in the absence of Federer and Rafael Nadal.

"So I feel like this US Open was important for the tennis world again to see on the men’s side – there are lot of new characters and there are more and they are exciting and their personality – and I feel like Alcaraz is leading the charge obviously and he has really invigorated the men’s game after people being upset that Roger and Rafa are not playing," she said on Match Point Canada.

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Stevenson opens up about retirement

Stevenson, who won the 2002 WTA Sparkassen Cup Leipzig in doubles with Serena Williams, also opened up on her experiences around retiring from the sport after a shoulder injury made it difficult to compete.

"I’ve never had that clarity (about retirement) and I’m not content – and I’m being honest. I got hurt with my shoulder and I felt like I was about to break in. I was 18 in the world and I was really finding my game.

"I was beating [players] from 1-10, and I’d beaten [Jennifer] Capriati three times in a row and she was ranked 1. And I finally kind of found the rhythm, it took me four years to figure it out and I was finding my game.

"And then I hurt my shoulder. And then I got surgery and then I fought my way back to like 200 [in the world]. And I just really didn’t have the backing of a team and the building that you need. Once my shoulder got hurt, I lost – everybody in my tennis life, they kinda just walked away. They didn’t wanna help me out and that was difficult," she said.

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