Why Carlos Alcaraz’s latest win may have enduring significance
For long periods of his match against Arthur Fils at the Monte Carlo Masters, Carlos Alcaraz appeared to have met his match.
The French Open champion is the red-hot favourite to win this tournament for the first time in his career and while that tag adds additional pressure on his shoulders, that was not his biggest problem against Fils.
Alcaraz is undoubtedly the brightest star of the younger generation of stars performing in Monte Carlo, with the four Grand Slam titles on his remarkable record evidence of his incredible rise at the age of 21.
So it would have been somewhat disconcerting for the Spaniard to have come up against a younger opponent who was better than him for long periods of the match.
Fils was knocking on the door of victory at the end of the second set, as he had break points to move within a game of victory.
That was when Alcaraz highlighted why he has an X-Factor only a chosen few are blessed with, as he held his serve at 5-5 and then won the set with a mesmeric game that included a brilliant lob to clinch the set.
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Those few minutes on the red clay in Monte Carlo may have had a lasting impact because if Fils had secured a breakthrough win against Alcaraz and gone on to lift the title in Monte Carlo, the confidence he gained may have propelled his confidence levels to a point that would have allowed him to join the game’s big league right now.
Instead, Fuls was left to ponder how he had lost against a great of the modern game and Alcaraz added a further notch to his reputation with his sparkling 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory.
“I just wanted to stay strong and wait for my chances,” Alcaraz said. “I think his level is high right now and he puts a lot of pressure on his opponents.
“Today I could feel it but in some moments he just made a few mistakes and I tried to make the most of those points and wait for my chances. The second set I saved those break points and then made the only break point I had that set.
“In the third set I was just trying to play good tennis. When I was a break down I just tried to keep going and play aggressively and be strong mentally and physically.
“I have missed clay. It is good to play the drop shot and it is a shot I use a lot and feel comfortable using. In matches like this I won almost every drop shot I hit and it gives me more confidence.”
Alcaraz vs Fils is a match-up we will be watching time and again over the next few years and on the evidence of the feast we were served up in Monte Carlo, their next clash cannot come soon enough.
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