Carlos Alcaraz is brave enough to take on Novak Djokovic, according to former ATP player Feliciano Lopez, despite lacking experience.
Carlos Alcaraz is one of the best players in the world, yet he lacks experience. It's not a criticism of him but more so the fact that he's still very young, which is actually a compliment considering the list of things he's already achieved.
It also does well for the future as he should only improve with more experience he gathers. Take this year's Wimbledon match against Djokovic. Just a few weeks before that, the Spaniard found himself on the losing side at Roland Garros against Djokovic.
He took his L and learned from that match; enough to win the next one, which was a huge one. Part of that is just his fearlessness, which compatriot Feliciano Lopez thinks is vital in the absence of experience.
The thing is that he plays every week at an enormously demanding level. When you aspire to be in the finals or win the tournaments, it is different and much more stressful than it can be for most. His comment is the result of learning. He’s only 20 years old, sometimes we forget that.
Lopez knows Alcaraz pretty well and knows that he operates differently than somebody like Djokovic. For Alcaraz, it is about really giving his all to overpower your opponent as opposed to Djokovic, who can pick his spots.
Furthermore, he plays with a lot of intensity, he needs to be fresh, have spark. He cannot achieve great results in a more diesel mode, like Djokovic, who sometimes starts matches at a slow pace, until he finds his moment and is already invincible.
We've all seen him pick his spots in matches, which comes with years of experience. It wasn't like that for Djokovic at the start of his career.
Carlos still does not have a database large enough to say, ‘here yes, here no, I’ll get ready here, I’ll leave this’. It’s very complicated. And everything that is happening to him, what he is experiencing so soon… it is a tsunami that comes into your life at 20 years old and it is difficult to manage it.