Taylor Fritz lost to Carlos Alcaraz last night and he was quite open about his admiration for the youngster and what he's been able to do.
Fritz never played against Alcaraz before and his first die was quite an experience. It wasn't easy as he was under constant pressure from the Spaniard who made it an emphasis to keep the rallies short and now allow Fritz any breathing room.
The American was quite stunned by what he saw but it was not something that he saw for the first time. He only experienced it for the first time last night.
It’s not even what I saw today. It’s what I have seen for a while now. I said it a year ago when I watched him play, for how young he is, he just has all the tools. He can come to net, he can dropshot you, he can lob you, he’s incredibly fast, he has all the power, his forehand is good, his backhand is good.
He went on a very long explanation of what makes Alcaraz so special noting that it's very rare to see a player who has such a complete skillset with very little to improve upon. He certainly doesn't rememeber many players like that and it's not something that only he noted about Alcaraz. Quite a few people made very similar observations.
It’s very rare to see someone so young so… developed in their game and not really have anything that they need to work on so much. He has tons of different ways to play, and he can incorporate tons of different game plans to play different players because he has so many tools to win a match. I think that’s something that I wouldn’t say any of those people had at such a young age. There is always I guess things that people need to improve on.
On the match specifically, Fritz noted the way Alcaraz approached it with a heavy emphasis of putting a lot of pressure on him. Alcaraz attacked early in rallies even with the return often hitting a winner with that shot before the rally could even develop.
I definitely felt like I had more breathing room against those guys than in this match. I think that it’s different game styles. Novak will have these long rallies, but he’ll kind of slowly get you out of position and overwhelm me. I still feel like I can hang in these rallies for a long time and get more chances to attack.
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