No Nadal Comparison: Federer's Former Coach Finds Similarities With Alcaraz

Tuesday, 21 March 2023 at 13:45

Updated at Friday, 04 April 2025 at 14:41

byZachary Wimer

Carlos Alcaraz has drawn comparisons to several legendary players, even though according to one coach familiar with most of these players, he mostly resembles one.

Due to being Spanish and quite skilled on clay, Alcaraz has drawn comparisons to Rafael Nadal. He has also been likened to Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. It mostly comes down to him being incredibly good, and for such a talented player, those are the names that will inevitably be mentioned.

Alcaraz is not particularly fond of those comparisons, often shutting them down, but they still persist. Paul Annacone, who coached Roger Federer and is quite familiar with most of these players, doesn’t think that Alcaraz directly compares to Nadal much. To him, Alcaraz is more similar to Federer than anything else, as he explained to The New York Times.

"I think he’s a lot more like Roger than Rafa, because Rafa couldn’t take the ball early like this when he was 19, and Rafa couldn’t come forward like this. Roger could always stay on the baseline and always look like he had time, and that’s how this kid looks."

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Alcaraz grew up idolizing Federer, which we know thanks to a video of him as a kid praising Federer and calling him his idol. He has since added Nadal to his list of idols, even though it’s clear from his playing style alone that Alcaraz tends to favor Federer more than Nadal.

There are shades of Nadal in the youngster's game because the Spaniard changed the sport, but ultimately, Alcaraz has stated on record that he wants to be the first Carlos Alcaraz and not a copy of any other player. To Annacone, the recent Indian Wells champion is a tremendous player who can do it all.

"The interesting thing for me is watching someone who is this athletically talented with his running, jumping, explosiveness and flexibility, but also has the hand-eye coordination to be able to take the ball early on the rise, come forward and volley. He also can back up and change pace. He can do everything."