Former world No 1 reveals key Roger Federer quality Carlos Alcaraz must add to improve

Ewan West 10 Apr 2024 9:11 PM

Carlos Alcaraz and Roger Federer

Former doubles world No 1 Rennae Stubbs has identified Carlos Alcaraz’s spot serving as “one area he can improve on” and feels it will help him “win more on a fast court.”

Stubbs, a former coach of tennis legend Serena Williams, assessed that Alcaraz’s serving accuracy is “nowhere near as good” as that of Swiss icon Roger Federer.

Alcaraz has been lauded by many for already having such a complete game at his young age of 20, although his serve has often been highlighted as the area that can improve most.

Earlier this year, former world No 1 Andy Roddick analysed Alcaraz’s serve in a episode of his Served podcast.

“I think his serve leaves a lot to be desired. That is the one thing that I don’t think has really improved much at all in the last two years,” claimed the American.

“I remember watching him, kinda his breakout – we knew about him – but winning Miami a couple of years ago and he was serving 135, and now I feel like he’s serving 127.

“There’s not a lot of motion to it, right? There are big servers, who serve straight through the court. And so, they’re are the type of servers that serve 136, but if you get a racket on it, you can square it up a little bit.

“It’s like, if you read it right, you can kind of square it up and get that good pop sound to it. So I think the serve is the most obvious place to improve with Alcaraz.”

Speaking on Racquet’s Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast, tennis analyst Stubbs argued Alcaraz’s serve could become much more accurate as she compared his height to Federer.

“Carlos is not tall, neither was Roger Federer. Roger’s what, 6’1? He’s slightly taller than Carlos Alcaraz but very similar in height. But Roger was an amazing spot server,” said the Australian, who won six major titles across women’s and mixed doubles.

“So they did a diagnosis of where they serve, as far as the Hawk-Eye. And Roger was always super close to the line. As is Novak [Djokovic]’s. So when you’re talking about two guys of the same height, Roger and Carlos, Carlos’ spots are nowhere near as good.

“They are like a good foot from the sideline, right? So he’s hitting it good, he’s hitting it big and all that stuff, but he’s not hitting it close to the line. Because Roger would hit it really close to the lines.

“So I think, one area that he can really improve on is his spot serving. Put the cans down as we all do as professionals. You gotta hit that can over and over and over and over again on the line. Or just before the line.

“And not a foot from the line, because that allows a [Jannik] Sinner, [Daniil] Medvedev, [Holger] Rune, Novak, it allows them to get the return back into the court.

“That is one area he can improve on and that’s how he’ll win more on a fast court. I mean, yes, he won Wimbledon, but to be honest, I was there live for that match. He served incredibly well in that match against Novak. So that’s where he was getting free points.”

Alcaraz was forced to withdraw from this week’s Monte Carlo Masters on Tuesday due to a right forearm injury.