Carlos Alcaraz will be ‘dangerous’ at Wimbledon once he gets matches under his belt, says pundit

Shahida Jacobs
Carlos Alcaraz tosses the ball

Aggression, explosiveness, a great forehand and an improving serve are just some of the attributes that will make Carlos Alcaraz a dangerous opponent at Wimbledon, according to Alex Corretja.

Teenage sensation Alcaraz heads to the third Grand Slam of 2022 with no competitive matches on grass under his belt this year after he opted to nurse an elbow injury following his French Open quarter-final exit.

Former world No 2 Corretja feels once his fellow Spaniard gets some confidence on the surface he will be hard to beat.

“I’m sure he would have loved to play a few more matches,” the tennis pundit said on Eurosport.

“I hope it’s going to be enough. On grass, it depends also if you play someone that is a specialist or not, but if he has a chance to play a couple of matches on those courts and he gets the confidence back, he’s going to be dangerous.

“I mean, Carlos, he’s so explosive that anything can happen with him.”

It has been a dream season so far for Alcaraz as he has won four ATP singles titles – including two Masters 1000 events in Miami and Madrid – while he also reached a career-high of No 6 in the ATP Rankings.

So what exactly makes the 19-year-old such a dangerous opponent?

Corretja said: “Carlos Alcaraz is very inspiring, he just goes with the flow. He works hard.

“I think it was good for him to stop after Roland-Garros, losing in the quarter-finals against [Alexander] Zverev – such a tough match – and then he took time off.

“He won Miami, he won Barcelona, he won Madrid, and all of a sudden you are at Roland-Garros like, okay, now you have to win as well.

“But no, he lost in the quarter-finals, and I believe for him it’s a learning process. On grass, he can do very well, there’s no reason why not because you need to move well, and he does.

“You need to be aggressive. He is aggressive. You need to have a shot where you can hurt the opponent. He’s got a great forehand. Nice backhand. He’s improving his serve, he’s returning well.

“So we will see how he adjusts because he didn’t have that many matches on grass and sometimes this is not easy, but he’s doing a calendar like the big champions, reserving himself for the important moments and taking time off just to be ready for the majors.”

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