Carlos Alcaraz is, undoubtedly, the best tennis player in the world right now.
The Spaniard is comfortably first in the ATP rankings following his Australian Open triumph, with a points tally of 13,150.
Alcaraz made history at Melbourne Park, becoming the youngest player ever to win all four majors at least once, completing the Career Grand Slam, aged just 22.
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He has already cemented legend status, having now won seven major crowns, as many as John McEnroe and Mats Wilander.
Despite his breathtaking quality, Alcaraz is generally perceived to be an inconsistent player, which Emma Raducanu‘s former coach, Mark Petchey, completely disagrees with.
Mark Petchey discusses the ‘inconsistent’ narrative around Carlos Alcaraz
“That is the narrative that people have stuck out there because it is comfortable,” said Petchey in an episode of Beyond the Numbers.
“It is very uncomfortable to see a guy like Alcaraz and say not only has he got an incredibly charismatic game with high velocity, but he’s also super disciplined, because that kind of goes against everybody’s thought process.
“Because we also need fire and ice 2.0 after the great rivalry of Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe, so we need to develop a narrative here that’s going to fit very nicely into fire and ice 2.0.
What Carlos Alcaraz and other pundits have said about his inconsistency
“And the reality is that Carlos is one of the most consistent players that we’ve ever seen.
“Let’s talk about, you know, how many match wins he had in his first 100 matches on tour. He sits at 75 (actually 74), that’s a couple better than Andy Roddick at 73.”
Jim Courier says Carlos Alcaraz was more consistent in 2025 than 2024
Responding to Petchey, four-time major champion Jim Courier said: “There’s no doubt that 2025 Alcaraz was far more consistent than he was in 2024.
“He matured; his bottom level, his base level, got a little bit higher.
“[Jannik] Sinner just operates in such a narrow bandwidth. He has so few bad losses. It’s kind of fascinating to see.”
Alcaraz lost just nine matches during the 2025 season, with two of the defeats handed to him by Jannik Sinner.
The other losses came against Novak Djokovic, Jiri Lehecka, Jack Draper, David Goffin, Holger Rune, Taylor Fritz and Cam Norrie.
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