Carlos Alcaraz loves to play a few exhibition matches during the year, wanting to have fun and give the fans lots of spectacular shots. The former world No.1 is immensely talented and has a huge range of solutions on the tennis court, which is why he is one of the most interesting players to watch in any match he plays.
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The young Spanish champion played two exhibition matches in the United States at the beginning of December, facing Ben Shelton in New York and Frances Tiafoe in Charlotte respectively. Some fans and insiders criticized Carlitos for this choice, stating that it would have been better for him to dedicate that time to preparing for 2025.
However as he admitted several times in 2024 the 21-year-old from Murcia needs to enjoy life at certain times and doesn't want to think about tennis all the time. Despite some ups and downs, this year has been very positive for Alcaraz who has won two Grand Slam titles (Roland Garros and Wimbledon) and a Masters 1000 (Indian Wells).
The 4-time Grand Slam champion needs to improve in terms of consistency and is practicing hard with his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero, who will follow him to Australia for the first Major of the new season.
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Ferrero will not be Carlos' only coach next year, given the recent addition of Samuel Lopez (former coach of Pablo Carreno Busta). The latter will accompany the world number 3 during the prestigious Rotterdam ATP 500, in which the Spaniard will participate for the first time in his young career.
Alcaraz loves to play exhibitions
Before defending his title in Indian Wells, the former world No. 1 will play another exhibition match against Tiafoe in Puerto Rico in early March.
During a recent interview with Eurosport, ATP legend Mats Wilander reflected on Carlitos' choice to play some exhibitions during the season: I think its very positive that Carlos Alcaraz plays certain exhibitions.
Im not a big fan when youre going to play an exhibition tournament where you have to play four or five matches or even three or four.
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But when you go to massive stadiums like Madison Square Garden, its okay, and its just one match. Were not talking about preparing four or five days before and then playing three or four matches.
Mats also added: So the whole discussion about the schedule being too tough and too many matches having been played, I think sometimes you have to separate the exhibitions from the exhibitions.
And an exhibition like going to Madison Square Garden, the experience in New York City in the fall and winter, I mean, its a big inspiration for any artist or athlete. So I think hes done the right thing.
The rivalry with Sinner
The Spaniard has already achieved mind-blowing results for his age, but he must not stop working if he wants to become one of the best players of all time.
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The rivalry with Jannik Sinner will be very useful for Carlitos, who knows he must always be 100% fit to be able to compete against the Italian. The world No. 1 has had impressive consistency in 2024, outdistancing his great rival by almost 5000 points despite Alcaraz winning two Grand Slam titles in the same year.
The current world number 3 has said several times that he wants to reach the same level as the Big 3, but there is still a long way to go to get on that list.
The 21-year-old from Murcia was almost unbeatable between the spring and summer of 2024, but his run was interrupted against Novak Djokovic in the final of the Paris Olympics.Carlitos was the top favorite to win the gold medal on his favorite surface, but a deluxe version of Nole and some difficulty in handling the pressure prevented him from realizing his dream. The young Spaniard will have many other chances to win the gold medal, but that painful defeat has plagued him a lot in the following months.
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On the latest edition of Andy Roddicks podcast, tennis legend John McEnroe discussed Alcarazs impressive achievements: If you had told me the three guys 20 years ago would beat Pete who was arguably the best player who ever lived, had 14 majors and it took 35 years for him to pass Roy Emerson, that three of these guys would do it and hit 20 or more, I would have said youre out of your mind.
I hope I am wrong about Alcaraz. That he is not going to be able to keep this up as long, I still think he is going to win 10 of them, which would still be unbelievable.
