Carlos Alcaraz's 2024 Season 'Kind Of Weird' Despite Success Says Roddick
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Former ATP world No. 1 Andy Roddick has revealed what he finds weird about Carlos Alcaraz's roller coaster 2024 season.
Alcaraz is preparing for the Australian Open, the only Grand Slam that Alcaraz has yet to win after title runs at the 2022 US Open, 2024 French Open, and the 2023 and 2024 Wimbledon Championships.
His triumphs at last year's French Open and Wimbledon were undoubtedly the Spaniard's best moments of 2024. He beat Alexander Zverev in five sets in the French Open final before dismantling Novak Djokovic in straight sets at SW19.
Alcaraz's 2024 season also included retaining the Indian Wells Open, a tournament later overshadowed by Jannik Sinner testing positive for the banned substance clostebol while competing in California.
Another notable moment came at the China Open. Alcaraz and Sinner had an epic battle for the title that lasted over three hours in Beijing before the 21-year-old eventually outlasted his opponent in a deciding set tiebreak.
Despite those successes, Alcaraz has not had everything easy. From the 2023 Wimbledon Championships until his success at the 2024 Indian Wells Open, he did not win a title for over eight months.
Alcaraz also endured a brutal defeat to Djokovic in last year's Olympic gold medal match in the men's singles. The young star cried during an interview after losing 6-7, 6-7 to the Serbian.
That was followed by a drop in form during the North American hardcourt season after the Olympics. Gael Monfils beat Alcaraz in his first match of the Cincinnati Open before Botic van de Zandschulp caused an even bigger shock at the US Open.
Alcaraz also dealt with the disappointment of losing the deciding doubles match alongside Marcel Granollers in the quarterfinal of the Davis Cup finals against Team Netherlands. That confirmed the end of 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal's career.
On an episode of the Served with Andy Roddick Podcast, the 2003 US Open champion described the weirdness of Alcaraz winning two Grand Slams in 2024, but it still feeling like he went through challenging moments and can improve further.
"It’s kind of weird because he is this all world talent who won two majors to bring his tally to four by the time he is 21, along with [Masters] 1000s and all this other stuff."
"But we forget that he didn’t win a tournament between Wimbledon and Indian Wells, and then he missed the entire clay-court season and then he lost to Botic van de Zandschulp at the US Open. He then beat Sinner over in Asia and then loses a couple of weird ones at the end of the [year]."
"What went right in 2024? I won majors! I won my second Wimbledon title. And what’s the areas of improvement? Being healthy and doing it all the time and winning 70-plus matches like [Jannik] Sinner did this year (2024)."
Improving on 2024 will be challenging for Alcaraz because of the presence of rivals like Sinner and Djokovic, but the Spaniard's incredible talent means anything is possible.
