Noted tennis analyst Mats Wilander believes that Carlos Alcaraz has moved away from having the "100% perfect image" he had in his early career stages.
For much of his career's early goings, the young Spaniard followed in the footsteps of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Besides being sensational and legendary players, Nadal and Federer always kept a relatively clean image, avoiding controversies at all costs.
One of the most legendary facts about Nadal is that he never broke a tennis racket on the court, and he worked on this. He wasn't born with zen-like patience, but he made a promise not to break rackets and kept it.
Alcaraz had a similar track record until the recent Cincinnati Open. He never broke a racket and generally avoided big meltdowns on the tennis court. That changed in a match against Gael Monfils when emotions got the better of him in the final set, and he destroyed his racket.
Reflecting on it after the match, he clearly wasn't happy with it. The Spaniard took to social media to apologize for that move and promise to do better in the future.
It was not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, but for tennis analyst Wilander, it symbolized something he's been noticing for a while: Alcaraz moving away from that 100% clean image.
He kind of curated it earlier in his career, but in recent times, he's shown himself different from them, and according to Wilander, it might prove to be a good thing. Still, he didn't love the racket break.
"Cincinnati is a very tough place to play tennis. It’s very windy, the courts are very fast. He was obviously very tired and didn’t win the Olympics. I hate to see someone break a racquet, I think that’s the last thing you want to do as a tennis player, because racquets aren’t free for 99.999% of the population. Don’t break them."
"But at the same time, he’s kind of detached himself from his image of being 100% perfect at all times, off the court, on the court, on social media. He’s kind of moved away from that. I think it’s a good thing for him, in a way, and I think it takes some of the pressure off him."
Curating a perfect image in anything is not a great idea because humans are not perfect. For some, it may not feel natural or relatable. In a sense, that's why both Nadal and Federer have this 'larger-than-life' feel to them.
Fans see them as special because of how they handled themselves. Alcaraz isn't like that, and most of these young players coming through aren't like that, either. It doesn't fit them, and there's tremendous pressure to keep up.
Making mistakes is normal. In a way, it's necessary because people and athletes can learn from them. Avoiding them creates more pressure and tension, and Alcaraz seems to have been dealing with a lot of pressure lately.
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