Carlos Alcaraz competed at the 2024 US Open looking fatigued, which is why former ATP player John McEnroe advised him to rest before returning to the courts.
Alcaraz had one of the most eventful summers of his life this year, filled with numerous matches and plenty of success. The Spaniard hadn’t played much tennis leading up to the summer due to injuries that kept him away from the court during the clay season.
His season really kicked off at Roland Garros, and it was an intense stretch right away. He made the French Open final, in which he faced Alexander Zverev. The 21-year-old bested Zverev in a grueling five-set match, before which he played another exhausting five-set battle against Jannik Sinner.
Understandably, this took a lot out of him, which is why he appeared relatively flat at the Queen’s Club afterwards, losing relatively early as a defending champion at the ATP 500 event.
However, he bounced back spectacularly at Wimbledon, navigating a couple of close matches to reach the final, in which he faced Novak Djokovic. While the match wasn’t the most complicated, it was still a final against Djokovic, so there was a lot of emotional fatigue after that.
Alcaraz had little time to process this as he had to quickly focus on the Paris Olympics, his first-ever Olympic Games. Playing both singles and doubles with Rafael Nadal added another layer of complexity to the experience.
Although his doubles campaign fell short of the medal round, he reached the singles final, in which he again faced Djokovic. Despite being the overwhelming favorite, the Spaniard didn’t perform at his best and lost, which was a major disappointment.
It was the kind of defeat that lingers, and it was evident that it affected him. His performance at the Cincinnati Open was a shock, as he admitted it was one of the worst matches he had ever played.
He didn’t fare much better in New York, where he was stunned by former Top 25 player Botic van de Zandschulp in just three sets, without even making the match competitive. McEnroe told Eurosport that Alcaraz should seriously consider resting properly.
He’s played a lot of tennis recently, and his body clearly needs time to recover. In addition, there’s a significant amount of emotional fatigue that also needs to be addressed.
"For me, Alcaraz is like a Ferrari. He's the best player I've seen at this age. He needs more breaks, I think. He needs a long break now and to really choose the tournaments in which he wants to shine."
"For example, he hasn't played very well in Australia so far. If I were him, I would rest for the next two months. His failure here is not due to his game but to the fact that he was mentally drained."
The Spanish player likely won't because he's in the act this week for the Davis Cup and will make his way to Asia after that. There is an ATP Masters 1000 event in Shanghai, and he wants to compete in the Paris Masters after that.
On top of that, he should also play at the ATP Finals and has an exhibition in Saudi Arabia planned as well.
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