After Carlos Alcaraz's most recent dip in form, former ATP player Andy Roddick was baffled by some of the narratives that emerged around the Spaniard.
The tennis most fans have seen in the past 20 years is not what tennis generally used to be. There weren't three ridiculously good tennis players playing at the same time.
Any one of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Rafael Nadal would probably win 30 Grand Slams had there not been for the other two rivals. That's not the sort of career that fans are used to seeing and will likely never happen again in tennis.
Because of this recent era of tennis, many fans are not being realistic with their expectations. Those are often tied to young players, such as Alcaraz, and on the latest episode of Roddick's podcast, he discussed it with tennis commentator Jon Wertheim.
It comes after Alcaraz has struggled more than before recently. Wertheim talked on the 'Served with Roddick' podcast on the topic.
"Even with the swoon, the guy [Carlos Alcaraz] is still going to be 21 in a couple of months and he's already got 2 [Grand Slam titles]. I mean the guy could retire tomorrow and he's a Hall of Famer."
Alcaraz's career is ridiculous when compared to anybody but the Big Three, and their careers have been far from regular. Everybody just has to recalibrate what a successful tennis career actually is.
"Yeah, I think we're we're all going to have to recalibrate and realize that the trajectory of Alcaraz is much more reasonable. It's Roger, Rafa, Novak, they're the outliers, not the guy."
"Not Medvedev, not the guys who win a major, lose in a final. I mean, that's much more, that's that's much more normal than guys winning 3 majors a year. Multiple years."
Ultimately, for Roddick, who also chimed in, there is no doubt that Alcaraz will likely end up on a Top 10 list of all-time greats by the time he finishes his career. So far, he's been trending in that direction. Now, it's all about staying healthy and improving because the competition never stops improving.
"Yeah, I worry about a lot of things in my life. I don't worry about Alcaraz on the heels of a loss in Buenos Aires very often. That's not something that keeps me up at night or that I worry about. He will be just fine. He is a stud."
"Has not played great so far this year. There are some things that I'm sure his team is very concerned about and also they know when you look back 12 years from now, the guy will have had he, he will be one of the names on the short list - top 10 all-time greats and that should be respected. Like we can't just not respect anyone because they're not Roger, Rafa or Novak or Serena."
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