Carlos Alcaraz hasn't been playing that well lately, but former ATP player Andy Roddick thinks it's silly to panic over his most recent stretch of results.
The last time the young Spaniard had a significant result was at the US Open, where he made his way to the semi-final. Daniil Medvedev would beat him in that semi-final, but it was a pretty decent run, at least.
After that, fans saw struggling with some injuries and bad form, and none of that changed in 2024. He played well in Melbourne but was then stunned by Alexander Zverev before the final. He didn't play all that better in Buenos Aires, losing to Nicolas Jarry.
Now he rolled his ankle in Rio, which might impact his Sunshine Double campaign. All in all, it's not been that great since the Wimbledon triumph last year, but former player Andy Roddick doesn't think it's a huge issue.
Speaking about it in the most recent episode of his podcast, Roddick touched upon Alcaraz's recent level.
"Alcaraz played, I thought, two pretty ordinary matches that he won. Weird errors at times, you know, trying different things, going in and out of strategies. It felt like he was searching a little bit and then Jarry kind of just took it to him and he took an uncharacteristic loss."
What's even more odd to Roddick besides the panic about Alcaraz is the sudden backing of Jannik Sinner, as he apparently won't ever lose again, according to some. None of that makes sense to Roddick, who has seen it all during his time on the ATP Tour.
"I'm reading comments and it's, you know, 'Sinner's never going to lose again', and 'Alcaraz isn't what we thought'. And I just think all of that commentary, Sinner is Sinner, he's awesome."
"But because he's playing well doesn't mean that Alcaraz is never going to play great again. It's kind of dumb to look at his resume and then freak out over a loss somewhere."