Carlos Alcaraz is well on the way to becoming a tennis legend himself…
The Spaniard won his fifth and sixth Grand Slam titles this year, lifting the trophy at the French Open and US Open.
He also finished the year ranked number one in the world, doing so for just the second time in his ATP Tour career.
Weighing in with his thoughts on Alcaraz, former world number one Andy Roddick named the three tennis legends the 22-year-old reminds him of.
Andy Roddick says Carlos Alcaraz reminds him of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Andy Murray
During the latest episode of ‘Served with Andy Roddick’, the 2003 US Open champion compared Alcaraz to three members of the ‘Big Four’.
“I think Carlos [Alcaraz] is a marriage of Roger [Federer], Rafa [Nadal], and [Andy] Murray, actually,” said Roddick.
His fellow American, Chris Eubanks, disagreed slightly, as he also made a comparison between Alcaraz and Serbia’s Novak Djokovic.
“I see elements of the Big Four in Carlos’ game. Every single one of them,” said Eubanks.
“The second serve return, we see Carlos stepping up close to the baseline, stinging it on the backhand side, which reminds me of Murray.
“When he’s hitting the forehand, usually, I would say it’s a bit more like Rafa, but I think his running forehand, and when he’s looking to take time away, his skills at the net resemble Roger, undoubtedly.
“And of course, Novak, his defensive skills out of the corners, being able to inject pace on the backhand, scrap and claw.”
Roddick, on the other hand, believes Alcaraz’s rival, Jannik Sinner, shares more similarities with Djokovic.
“I think Sinner is Djokovic 2.0,” he said.
“He’s an inch taller, if the trade-off with Novak was 40-60 on the front foot vs, I’m happy to D up he can obviously punch you out if he needs to, but he was so good at just swallowing pace, making every point brutal.
“I think Sinner is maybe the opposite, he’s 60-40, he wants to get on that front foot maybe a little bit earlier.
Is Jannik Sinner currently the best player in the world?
“But maybe their games, without getting too creative, are the most similar.”
It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to hear that the two best players in today’s game mirror some of the best players of the previous generation.
Sinner and Alcaraz are head and shoulders above the rest at the moment and lead the world number three, Alexander Zverev, by over 6,000 points.
Official ATP top five
- 1. Carlos Alcaraz – 12,050 points
- 2. Jannik Sinner – 11,500 points
- 3. Alexander Zverev – 5,160 points
- 4. Novak Djokovic – 4,830 points
- 5. Felix Auger-Aliassime – 4,245 points
Their rivalry is one of the best we’ve ever seen and continues to excite fans around the world.
Weighing in with his thoughts, Roddick explains the key dynamics of the Alcaraz/Sinner rivalry.
The reason why Carlos Alcaraz is so effective against Jannik Sinner…
“Here’s what I think… Sinner, as far as controlling the middle of the court, he’s as good as I’ve seen at swallowing the middle of the court with pace,” said Roddick.
“You can’t gain on him; nobody is going through Jannik Sinner.
“The reason why Alcaraz is able to have a level of effectiveness that no one on earth has against him is because he can hit every shot.
Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner’s H2H
- Carlos Alcaraz (10-6) Jannik Sinner
“He can hit the dropshots, he can fade away on clay.
“If Sinner knows what is coming, it’s curtains. It’s like [Shohei] Ohtani and Barry Bonds looking for a pitch; they rarely miss it, if they know what’s coming.
“Carlos has five pitches, compared to a fastball and an off-speed pitch. That’s the difference.
“Sinner is one of the best I’ve ever seen at controlling the middle of the court, maybe along with Andre [Agassi], except Andre wasn’t 6ft 5 and he didn’t have that movement and defence out of the corners.
“He would tell you the exact same thing.”
Roddick proceeded to suggest why Alcaraz’s advantage over Sinner disappears on indoor hard courts.
“One of the challenges when we go indoors is that Carlos loses one of his options,” he said.
“He can’t flip the ball up and away from Sinner; he’s not going to kick it out wide.
“The bounce stays a little more muted, so it’s tougher to get out of Sinner’s pocket indoors.”
Sinner got the better of Alcaraz indoors at the ATP Finals recently, picking up the title with a straight-sets win in Turin.
Only time will tell how their rivalry will develop in 2026, but you certainly won’t want to miss any of the action.
Receive exclusive tennis news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
