Carlos Alcaraz's outstanding success throughout his young career so far has not stopped John McEnroe from worrying about the former ATP world No. 1's height.
There has been a trend in tennis in the last 20 years of taller players becoming more successful. Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Andy Murray are all over six feet tall, and they dominated the sport for several years.
That trend also applies to many of the players that followed that generation. Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev both stand at six feet and six inches, while Jannik Sinner is six feet and four inches.
Medvedev and Zverev are both great players, but Sinner surpassed them and became the best ATP player in the world in 2024, which led to him finishing as the year-end world No. 1.
Sinner won maiden Grand Slam titles at the Australian Open and US Open, secured the ATP Finals on home soil in Turin, and helped Italy claim back-to-back Davis Cup titles to complete a historic season.
Alcaraz's 2024 is the only one that came close to matching Sinner's. He won the French Open and Wimbledon to take his Grand Slam tally to four and also triumphed at the prestigious Indian Wells Open.
Unfortunately, this year's tournament in Indian Wells is now best remembered for Sinner testing positive for the banned substance clostebol. However, fans did not discover that news until a few months later.
After initially being cleared of wrongdoing by the International Tennis Integrity Agency, the World Anti-Doping Agency appealed Sinner's case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, with a ruling to be made next year.
A ban for Sinner could disrupt his epic rivalry with Alcaraz. Some of their superb matches include Alcaraz outlasting the Italian in the China Open final and outstanding five-set battles at the 2022 US Open and this year's French Open.
However, McEnroe focused more on Medvedev and Zverev in his appearance on the Served with Andy Roddick Podcast because they stand at six feet and six inches. The seven-time Grand Slam champion worries Alcaraz could get frustrated in the future playing against them.
"Now, you even got Medvedev, these type of guys standing 50 feet behind the baseline, willing to run 25% more than his opponent and standing as far back as you possibly can. They're 6'6". Zverev and those guys."
"Do they have the explosive speed of Carlos Alcaraz? No, because no one does. This guy’s the greatest talent that I’ve seen in the last 20 years. It is the most pleasure to watch Alcaraz maybe than I’ve ever seen, certainly at this age."
"I worry only because he’s 6 feet and a half inch tall and that these other guys are going to drive him absolutely nuts. He’s going to play these guys that just serve out of a mountain and you know get frustrated, which is what happened at the end of last year. It happened on a handful of occasions. It's going to be tough. He's got to be really strong."
Alcaraz's career is already statistically more successful than Zverev's and Medvedev's, but it remains to be seen whether his frustration when playing against them increases in the future.
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