Carlos Alcaraz hasn't played his most consistent tennis at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships so far, but he thinks it's normal because he can't play his best tennis every match.
Consistency is one of the main aspects of a tennis player's greatness and longevity. The more consistent a tennis player can become, the greater they can be because being consistent in tennis is hard, and it's one of the main differences between the greats and regular players.
Many tennis players can play at a high level, but very few can do it every match. The best among them generally become the best of a generation, and Alcaraz is certainly one of those.
Even so, he has good and bad days, and in his case, good and bad sets, games, and even points, as his 2024 Wimbledon campaign showed. He was brilliant against Tommy Paul, but only from the second set, and he also struggled against Frances Tiafoe.
Overall, his 2024 Wimbledon campaign has been less stellar and impressive than the 2023 one, but he's not concerned by it. He's in the semi-final, and that's what it's all about—winning the match.
"Well, we try just to find solutions. For me obviously is gonna be really difficult to play my best tennis every match. There are gonna be some matches where I'm not going to find my best tennis but I have to try to win it. I think what the Big Three did during their careers, they're not gonna play their best tennis, they are gonna find their good tennis to win those matches."
What separates champions from the rest of the field is their ability to win matches when they don't play their best. That's what it's all about, and for Alcaraz, seeing the Big Three - Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer, do it for so many years only motivates him to try and do the same.
"When I'm not playing my best tennis, I'm going to try to find solutions to be a bit better and beat the opponent. Sometimes, it's going to be difficult to do it, but sometimes, I play enough to win those matches."