Carlos Alcaraz lays down French Open marker, but is yet to pass the Novak Djokovic test

Midway through Carlos Alcaraz’s gritty 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 triumph over Jan-Lennard Struff in the Madrid Masters final, the Spaniard made the kind of tactical adjustment that great players are capable of.
Throughout the last two tournament weeks on tour, Alcaraz breezed past his challengers to defend home titles in Barcelona and Madrid. The 20-year-old has a magnetic playing style, coupling brilliant shotmaking and athleticism with a dynamic edge through his keenness to come to the net and a deceptively effective forehand drop shot, making him a big crowd favourite.
These strengths are at their brutal best on clay, where Alcaraz remains unbeaten in the spring in the build-up to the French Open. But the final against Struff on Sunday, his fifth in six tournaments this year, turned out to be a trickier test than expected.
Alcaraz’s strategy to hit the kick serve out wide to stretch Struff outside the court was not firing, and his dropping first-serve percentage allowed the German to target his second serve. The adjustment came swiftly.
Alcaraz began serving to the body, robbing Struff of time on the return he was pummelling back deep. Seeing Struff target his backhand, Alcaraz began positioning himself deeper on his left, anticipating serves and big groundstrokes into his backhand, and getting around it with his stronger forehand. The eventual win would prove significant not only because he had to dig deep emotionally, but also due to the elite in-game adjustment he needs to take the next step in his career.
GOAT test
This time last year, Alcaraz defeated Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic on his way to winning in Madrid. Not even Roger Federer had defeated the two at the same clay court event, but Alcaraz did it a few days after his 19th birthday.
The rest of the year, he would complement his captivating playing style with enormous success – a maiden Grand Slam title, four Masters 1000s, and becoming the youngest year-end World No. 1 – which catapulted him to superstardom. This year, since returning from injury in February, he has a win-loss record of 29-2 with dominant performances making him the nailed-on favourite at Roland Garros later this month, albeit with an asterisk.
Alcaraz hasn’t played Nadal or Djokovic in over a year now. This is through no fault of his own, Nadal’s injury troubles have reduced him to a mere tour on tour, and Djokovic’s unvaccinated status has kept him out of the US, where Alcaraz has got his most significant results. On the other hand, injury kept Alcaraz out of the ATP Finals and the Australian Open, which Djokovic won.
Alcaraz hasn’t played Nadal or Djokovic in over a year now. (Twitter/ATPTour)
Nadal, recovering from a hip injury, may not be a competitive feature soon, but Djokovic remains the top star. The Serb has had a poor start to his clay season and is nursing an elbow injury, but is horically known to start slow on the surface before playing himself into form just before Paris. He will enter the Rome Masters – the last significant tune-up ahead of the French Open – as the World No.1, a spot that Alcaraz will usurp just entering the tournament, where the duo can meet in the final.
There is little doubt that Alcaraz is a generational sporting talent. Men’s tennis has not seen a teenager reach these kinds of heights since Nadal, but for him to go from a star of the future to one of the present, he will have to successfully take down one of this sport’s titans on the grandest stage. Rome may provide a dry run, but until the French Open, Alcaraz remains the prince-in-waiting.
A rivalry blossoms
Unlike the men, the two consently best players on the women’s tour have enthralled through their high-quality matches in recent weeks.
On Saturday, Aryna Sabalenka defeated Iga Swiatek 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 to win the final in Madrid, after Swiatek bested her in straight sets at Stuttgart two weeks prior. It was the first time in 23 years that the two highest-ranked players faced each other in consecutive finals.
While the indoor clay conditions of Stuttgart allowed Swiatek to redirect pace and take charge from the baseline, Sabalenka was able to use her powerful groundstrokes aided Madrid’s high-altitude air as the ball flew quicker, to nullify anything that the Pole threw at her on Sunday. Her weaker backhand wing came in clutch, and despite squandering a 4-2 lead in the third set, the Belarusian held her own to break back and take the win.

Sabalenka has won three titles this year, including the Australian Open after an epic final against Elena Rybakina. She has needed vast improvements in her serve and decision- making, as well as mental maturity, to match up to the standards that Swiatek has set on tour – she was unbeaten on clay, and for 37 matches in total, last year.
The two, alongside Rybakina – the reigning Wimbledon champion who beat both of them on her way to the Indian Wells title – have won the last four Majors among themselves and have consently met at the most important stages of the biggest tournaments.
Rybakina has struggled to replicate her form on clay owing to minor injury trouble and the slow nature of the surface. But over the past few weeks, Swiatek and Sabalenka – with Alcaraz on the men’s side – have set the bar very high ahead of the French Open.