If a player hits a running trick to save the break point, but later three unforced errors and a double mistake break, is it a good tennis? For Carlos Alcaraza definitely.
He gave a signal example of the voltage of his documentary “My Way”, just when Netflix released his trailer. While Alcaraz oscillates between the noble and absurd court against Daniel Altmaier in Monte Carlo Masters in Monaco, the streaming company released a film on YouTube.
He asks some basic tennis questions: How much should it require from his stars? How many victims should they be in size? And is there a way to a size that does not require all the players looking for it?
Against Altmaier, Alcaraz found himself in his first service game of their match 30-40. German plumage shot just over the net and dragged Alcaraz ahead …
He replied with a sharp angle of crossing…
… But Altmaier read the shot and moved in court to send the ball deep down the line on the other side.
Alcaraz, who runs diagonally on his left, would have to hit his legs. Easier option was to send the ball back a cross court. Altmaier moved properly to cover this shot; Alcaraz, maybe apparently, did not hit it.
Instead, he left the ball down the line and sent Altmaier to the backhand corner. The German managed to hang the ball back into the game, but Alcaraz waited for his backhand to crush the apartment to the same corner that Altmaier could only send to the net.
It was an example of divine inspiration and sometimes other world skills – and joy – that Alcaraz brings to the court and which has transferred it to the upper layers of tennis.
“It’s beautiful to play such points,” Alcaraz said later, watching the shot back. “I try to introduce the show and try to entertain people. The point of that … just to wonder how my matches will be.”
The rest of the match was not so similar.
After Alcaraz saved this break, he missed the routine first example behind his portion. He saved four more points in the game and held his services for 1-1. Then he broke Altmaier to lead 3-2 before hitting three unforced errors and a double error to break in the next game.
It was the first set formula, oscillation between brilliant points and routine errors before Alcaraz again broke to 5-3 to take it, 6-3.
The second set was a routine, when the Spaniard eventually won 6-3, 6-1 to create a quarterfinal against seeds no. 12 Arthur Fils.
“I want to do my way,” says Alcaraz in the trailer of the series his goals to be the best player in the world. This ambition is connected with the opinions of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, who both did it.
“To achieve what Novak (Djokovic) did, Roger or I do,” says Nadal, “you must feel that the victim is worth and that it pays off.”
With 66 Grand Slam titles among the three largest men of men of all time, there are few arguments that they paid off in success. It seems that Alcaraz will ask if it pays off in other ways.
Alcaraz, 21, has four Grand Slam titles. He is the youngest man who won Major on all three surfaces, and still has two more opportunities – 2026 and 2027 Australian is opening – becoming the youngest man who wins all four majority.
If he wins the title in Monaco, he will assure place 2 in the men’s ranking, for his closest rival and player with whom he shares the best cloak in the world: Jannik Sinner.
His style of play is so unique that his victory and his losses may seem as if from another world.
When he loses, whether it is a set or a whole match, he tends to lose badly. Creativity looks like naivety and shooting looks like a waste-a tendency to stand against players with a smaller number. Since the beginning of 2024 he has 16 defeats and one retirement due to injury, but only six of these defeats came against the 10 best players. Two of these six came at one tournament, the ATP Tour 2024 final, during which he fought the disease. The average ranking of his rivals in another 10 losses is 32.
He does mentally and technically, especially for his portion and backhand. He changed the movement to the first and back to the latter, which means that errors sometimes flow like water, but also reveal determination to improve, one of the most difficult things to do with the demanding tennis schedule.
Alcaraz describes the challenges of this schedule in the trailer and emphasizes that he wants to be able to spend time at home, to see his family. If he also wants to dominate sport like Djokovic, Nadal and Federer, this time will be limited.
As Nadal and Federer indicate in their roles, when Netflix speaking heads, it is possible to find out if it was worth it.
Tweeners will be on the way.
There will also be mistakes.
(Upper Photo: Valery Hache / AFP through Getty Images)
