Andy Roddick has been talking about Carlos Alcaraz on the latest edition of his podcast.
The former world number one has been effusive in his praise for the 20-year-old in the past, and retained that level of support whilst ridiculing the reaction to his current run of form.
Last week saw the Spaniard dumped out in the semi-finals of his Buenos Aires Open title defence, which has drawn further scrutiny.
But what is being said that has left Roddick frustrated with the general tennis-following public? We take a closer look…
What Andy Roddick said about Carlos Alcaraz
Speaking on Served with Andy Roddick, the 41-year-old wasted no time in moving on to chat about Alcaraz just after he had lauded Jannik Sinner for the huge strides forward he had made.
It is a coincidence that during the world number two’s lull in form, the Italian has risen to prominence playing the tennis of his life, with Alcaraz even noting how difficult the 22-year-old is to play.
Roddick suggests this has skewed the scale of world tennis, noting: ‘I think the overriding story coming out of that, outside of the Buenos Aires of things and Diaz Acosta, is Alcaraz.
‘He played two pretty ordinary matches that he won, weird errors at times, you know trying different things, going in and out of strategies, it felt like he was searching a little bit and then Jarry just took it to him and he took an uncharacteristic loss.
‘You go on and you’re reading comments and it’s ‘Sinner is never going to lose again’ and ‘Alcaraz isn’t what we thought,’ and I just think all of that commentary… Sinner is Sinner, we’ve already covered him he’s awesome, but because he’s playing well doesn’t mean that Alcaraz is never going to play great again.
‘Like this, it’s kind of dumb to look at his resume and then freak out over a loss somewhere, first match on a surface, coming up on nine months.‘
Count out Carlos Alcaraz at your own peril
It would be supremely foolish to write off someone so young and insanely talented already, just due to a few underwhelming months.
Especially when that period has included the US Open semi-final and an Australian Open quarter-final as well as enjoying deep runs in other ATP events too.
Just because he is not the dominant force in the sport, as he threatened to become during Wimbledon last year, does not mean his career is any less impressive.
He already has two Grand Slams at the age of 20! Those are insane numbers, and ones he is almost certain to improve upon in the coming years.
A poor run of form he is enduring, yes. But if for one minute anyone thinks this is the start of a steady long-term decline for Alcaraz then they are wrong. He will be back on top in no time, ready to make those who doubted him look ridiculous.
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