Carlos Alcaraz has recently dealt with some forearm issues, which concerns former ATP player Alex Corretja, who watched him in Madrid.
As someone who played many years on Tour, Corretja is very good at noticing the little things regular fans don't see. He knows Alcaraz very well and has watched him up close many times, including at the Madrid Open recently, which was the final time we saw the young Spaniard competing on a tennis court.
He missed the Italian Open, and we won't see him until Roland Garros. According to Corretja, who spoke to Eurosport ahead of the season's second major, the forehand is a shot to watch when it comes to Alcaraz, because, in Madrid, he didn't hit it as hard as he could, even though he was still very dangerous when he did find a rhythm on it.
"I saw him live in Madrid and once he gets in the rhythm, he's very dangerous. His forehand is working well, but maybe he wasn't hitting it as hard as before. We will see if at Roland-Garros, he is going to be feeling the ball a little bit more or he's going start little by little, in crescendo, to see if he can get a little bit of confidence using his arm."
Corretja understands Alcaraz's dilemma really well because he's been a player and has seen these things in person. When a player feels pain, they doubt their abilities, and Alcaraz might be very determined to avoid any kind of pain, which is why he may be careful.
Playing without fear is obviously important for doing well, and that will be the 21-year-old's goal in the French capital. Corretja hopes he has fully recovered since Madrid.
"When you have these kind of injuries, sometimes you have some doubts when you hit the ball where it's been hurting. So hopefully he's going to have recovered, yes."
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