Carlos Alcaraz Changes His Racket And Serve Ahead Of 2025 Season
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Carlos Alcaraz made some important changes to his equipment and game ahead of the 2025 season.
The Spanish player chose not to compete in any warm-up tournaments prior to the 2025 Australian Open, which starts on January 12th. Instead, he played in a couple of exhibitions during the off-season, postponing the start of his preparations.
That's also one of the reasons why he will start the new season later than some of his rivals, but it seems that the 21-year-old Spaniard had sufficient time for training blocks in December, as he not only worked on his game but also made changes to his equipment.
Alcaraz uses the Babolat racket, specifically the Babolat Pure Aero model, which has worked well for him in the past few years. Now, however, he has decided to make a modification to his racket.
During his preparations at the Ferrero Tennis Academy in Villena and the Club de Campo de Murcia, his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, wanted to improve Alcaraz's forehand speed, which is why they started altering his racket.
According to Spanish publication MARCA, Alcaraz's new racket should be five grams heavier. This might not seem like a significant change, but given the light weight of tennis rackets, this is a nearly 2% change in the weight of the racket.
With the precision that the best of the best play with, Alcaraz certainly had to get used to the new setup, but it's something that should help him in the long run.
Alcaraz's new coach, Samuel Lopez, who joined his team ahead of the 2025 season after leaving Pablo Carreno Busta, spoke about the change, explaining the logic behind it.
The 54-year-old Spanish coach explained that the added weight should help the four-time Grand Slam champion to generate more power, something they noticed already during his practice days.
"It's an extra help in the stroke. With that acceleration he has, he will gain in power and weight of the ball. With his quality of impact, with a racket with more weight, just touching the ball in front you take advantage of the force of how it comes to you. It is being noticed a lot these days in the rest."
On top of that, Alcaraz also tested new strings. It's clear that the ATP World No. 3 player wants to counter those ahead of him (Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev), and his preparations were done with that in mind.
In addition to changes to his equipment, Alcaraz also worked on his serve, which was discussed a lot during the 2024 season as one of his main weaknesses.
The two-time Wimbledon champion recognized that it was a shot he must work on last year, and he did that during the off-season. According to the report by MARCA, his serving motion should now be more fluid, with just one stop during the preparation instead of two.
Alcaraz will be hoping that these changes will help him to challenge for the Australian Open title, as he would become the youngest man to complete a Career Grand Slam if he succeeds in Melbourne.
