The Spaniard continued in the same vein in 2023, breaking several new records thanks to his victory at Wimbledon. Alcaraz moved up to world number one in July after beating Novak Djokovic in the championship match, and he has held the No. 1 spot ever since, becoming the youngest US Open men’s seed in tennis history.
He will now look to accomplish another incredible feat at the US Open by defending his title. Since the creation of the US Open in 1968, only seven tennis players have managed to defend their title in New York.
More interestingly, no tennis player has defended a US Open title since Roger Federer, who won five titles in a row in New York from 2004 to 2008.
Let’s see how likely Alcaraz is to repeat the Swiss legend’s feat.
Carlos Alcaraz has an incredibly difficult path to walk if he wants to emulate Roger Federer.
The Spaniard got quite a heavy net at the US Open this year.
The world’s first racketeer begins its campaign in New York against the German Dominik Koepfer. It now becomes a little more difficult for him, as he could face the strong Lloyd Harris in the second round and Dan Evans or Jordan Thompson in the third.
Next, he could face No. 12 seed Cameron Norrie, who has beaten him twice in head-to-head matches. The Briton has lungs of steel and is ready for long matches.
In the quarter-finals, Alcaraz has an even tougher potential clash as he could face Yannick Sinner or Alexander Zverev, two players who have given him huge problems in the past. Sinner even beat Alcaraz when they last met in Miami. Meanwhile, Zverev last beat the Spaniard in 2022, and although he’s only a shadow of his former self, his performance will take away a lot from the Spaniard if he intends to reach the semi-finals.
2021 US Open winner Daniil Medvedev may be waiting for Alcaraz in the semi-finals. The Spaniard may not have much left in the gas tank by the time he joins the Russian, whose grid is quite simple. Their match is expected to last over three sets.
And if Carlos Alcaraz somehow manages to win this match, who will be the most likely opponent in the final? Novak Djokovic. The Serb already booked the 20-year-old at the Cincinnati Open last week, beating him in an incredibly long match. Djokovic will once again be ready to go all the way against his youngest opponent if the situation demands it.
This means Alcaraz could struggle to match the feat of Federer, who defended his US Open title.
Roger Federer succeeded by winning back-to-back US Open titles in easier times. 20-time Major winner Roger Federer had a much less demanding style of play than Carlos Alcaraz.
Back when Federer was winning five titles in a row, most ATP players didn’t have Alcaraz’s style of play.
Currently, most players are playing well on defense, which means rallies can be endless, and even a machine like Alcaraz is sure to tire. But in Federer’s time playing times were much shorter and players had a lot more variety than today.
It’s important to note that the combined wear of Carlos Alcaraz and Roger Federer has historically been different. For academic purposes, although Alcaraz has only participated in 12 tournaments so far in 2023, he has been on the pitch for endless hours due to long games and long draws (he missed the Australian Open this year due to injury).
Federer has usually played as many tournaments as the young Spaniard heading into the US Open. But his matches weren’t exhausting. In fact, in his prime, he won many of his matches in less than two hours, destroying opponents with his combination of serve and forehand.
Tennis Abstract’s Match Chart project offers a deeper understanding of how Roger Federer and Carlos Alcaraz may have experienced varying levels of wear and tear. According to the data, while the Swiss have an average draw length of 3.8 from 631 games, the Spaniard’s average draw length from 103 games so far is 4.0.
At first glance, these figures may seem close. But if you consider the fact that Federer played a lot more games against the best players (and a lot more games in general), it’s clear that it was much easier for him to win games against the best players. best.
Carlos Alcaraz, meanwhile, often struggles to score cheap points on his serve and lacks the 20-time Grand Slam champion’s ability to rack up countless points on the net. And although he has controlled aggression, comparable to the Swiss, he commits many more unforced errors than the younger version of Federer.
In this context, it is understandable why Roger Federer was able to defend the US Open title so many times in the 2000s. This was made possible thanks to an efficient style of play and a completely different era of tennis.
Even if Carlos Alcaraz is also capable of repeating his success one day, he will have to change his game a lot. All things considered, he is more than likely to fail to defend his title at the US Open 2022, and the hours spent in the field in 2023 will end up costing him dearly in New York.
Vyacheslav Gorbachev/Athletistic
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I’m Rose Brown , a journalist and writer with over 10 years of experience in the news industry. I specialize in covering tennis-related news for Athletistic, a leading sports media website. My writing is highly regarded for its quick turnaround and accuracy, as well as my ability to tell compelling stories about the sport.
