Carlos Alcaraz’s rival explains how Wimbledon champion has changed one key aspect of his game

Casper Ruud has picked out an important element of Carlos Alcaraz’s game that has changed and helped the Wimbledon champion to “play more calmly than before”.

Two-time Grand Slam winner Alcaraz’s high-intensity game has helped to win him a lot of matches over the past few years, but there have been suggestions from some that he goes for too many “crazy shots” at times.

World No 8 Ruud has been on the receiving end of some of the Spaniard’s “crazy shots” with the 20-year-old winning all four matches that they have played. The most recent encounter was a 6-4, 6-2 win for Alcaraz at the China Open.

Norwegian Ruud was asked to analyse changes to the world No 2’s game and came up with an interesting reply.

“I think he’s more mature. He seems a little bigger, a little stronger physically,” he told Barbara Schett on Eurosport’s Ruud Talk.

“Obviously, he plays so aggressive and so great, but sometimes it seems like he might beat himself a little. He goes for almost too much, at least in my eyes.

“I am not going to criticise him any more than this, because he’s a great player. But sometimes when you hit all these crazy shots, it’s kind of tempting to go for an even crazier one. But I think he’s understood that most matches won’t be won by playing crazy shot after crazy shot.

“It’s more about stability, and I think he’s playing more calmly than before, and that can be dangerous when you have the strength and power combined with the cleverness on court we’ve seen this year. It’s a great combo.”

Alcaraz’s all-action style won him the US Open last year, but that same style took its toll at this year’s French Open when he succumbed to cramp during his semi-final match against Novak Djokovic.

And even the great Djokovic admitted that playing at such a high level will cause problems.

“Respect for him for hanging in there until the last point, really. It was obvious that he was struggling with his movement,” the Serbian said.

“It’s unfortunate for the crowd, it’s unfortunate for the match of this importance for both of us, but that’s sport. It happens when you play on extremely high intensity as we both did I think for the first two sets.”

He added: “But it’s a part of the learning curve. It’s part of the experience. He’s only 20.”

A few months later and Alcaraz turned the tables on Djokovic – although he still went for his “crazy shots” – as he defeated the tennis great in five sets in the Wimbledon final, but there is no doubt that the Spaniard has toned down on the “crazy shots” since the French Open as part of the “learning curve”.

READ MORE: How Novak Djokovic served up a blueprint to beat Carlos Alcaraz using a dangerous tactic