Carlos Alcaraz let it slip a few times that he idolized Roger Federer during his childhood, and his idol also admires him.
Alcaraz has, in the meantime, come to call Rafael Nadal his idol. However, earlier on in his career, videos from his childhood showed a young Spaniard being very infatuated with Roger Federer.
Who can really blame him when the Swiss Maestro captured so many hearts around the world? Federer's tennis was indeed poetry in motion, and very few would argue with that.
Now, the 42-year-old still follows the sport keenly, and he's very impressed with what some of the young players have been able to do on the ATP Tour. He mentioned Alcaraz in a recent interview with ESPN, praising his Roland Garros and Wimbledon efforts.
"The guys are doing so well. Alcaraz at the French was fantastic. His win here last year was incredible against Novak in that 5 setter. I’ve played Novak here. I know how tough he is to beat. For Carlos to do it at 20 years old was incredible."
It's shaping up to be a really good decade for tennis with a couple of young players coming up, including Jannik Sinner, who the 20-time major winner also mentioned as one of the players to watch, especially because of his incredible progress in recent months.
"And Sinner, how his progression has been the last couple of years, I like it a lot. I see that continuing. Which is gonna mean that both are gonna meet each other hopefully so many times. It’s gonna be a great rivalry."
Alcaraz is currently leading the pack, but tennis is ever-evolving, as we've seen with the Big Three. First, it was Federer, but soon enough, Rafael Nadal joined him, and Novak Djokovic followed not too long after.