Alcaraz Brought 'Sick Combination' Of Djokovic, Nadal & Federer Says Ljubicic

Monday, 26 June 2023 at 18:00

Updated at Tuesday, 29 July 2025 at 20:26

byZachary Wimer

Carlos Alcaraz has many admirers, and former player Ivan Ljubicic is one of them, as the Croatian sees shades of the Big Three in him.

The young Spaniard showed his talent back in 2021 by impressing more than once in a very solid first year, which also saw him lifting an ATP trophy. It was back in Umag, and many agreed that he would be a very good player in the future.

Not many expected him to become as good as he did so suddenly, with the 2022 season becoming his major breakthrough. The first part of the year was dominated by Rafael Nadal and everything he did, however, the latter part belonged to Alcaraz.

He won multiple trophies in 2022, including his biggest one (US Open). The US Open triumph allowed him to emerge at the top of the rankings, becoming the youngest man to reach the number one spot in the history of the sport.

His impressive play continued this year as Alcaraz has won five trophies already, even though his stay at Roland Garros proved quite disappointing, something Ljubicic recently talked about.

"In that match against Novak, he wasn’t as creative and fluid as he usually is, but he brought another dimension to tennis, a dimension young players lacked in the last 10-20 years."

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According to the former player, the Spaniard has shades of all members of the Big Three, calling him a sick combination of Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Rafael Nadal. It's not something that's exclusive to Ljubicic, as many pointed out in the past.

He is positive and he is something we haven’t seen so far – some sort of ‘sick’ combination of Djokovic, Federer and Nadal. I just hope that his body holds up, because he is putting crazy demands on his body at this moment.

The body is a question mark, even though the Spaniard looks anything but frail on a tennis court. He had some injuries already, so that's something to keep an eye on.