Alcaraz, better than Nadal and Federer in their beginnings on grass

Carlos Alcaraz takes his first steps on the grass. He played seven matches on the most inhospitable surface on the circuit and achieved more than: five wins and two defeats, which also came against hard bones like Daniel Medvedev and Jannik the Sinner. A board that lifts you above the beginnings Raph still and Roger Federer and puts it on high andy murray and Novak Djokovic on the green carpet.

Murciano’s debut on grass took place in Wimbledon 2021, when he was still 75th in the rankings and had a first-round match on outdoor courts all english club against Yasutaka Uchiyama. He won in five sets – his first career win at this distance – and snapped a short but brilliant streak on a surface he discovered in 2019, when he also played as a junior at Wimbledon.

That year, it allowed him to train with Roger Federer on another Wimbledon outdoor court as he prepared his attack on the quarterfinals. Alcaraz, still a child, took a photo with the Swiss who, a few days later, defeated Nadal in the semi-finals only to lose to Novak Djokovic in the final.

The Helvetian is the most successful player in the history of grass, with eight Wimbledon titles, 10 in Halle and a streak of 65 consecutive matches won on the surface. But he was not always king. His debut came in Queen’s —where Alcaraz is competing this week— against Byron Black who beat him 6-3, 6-0. Interestingly, it was the only donut the Basel player released on grass until his last match, against Hubert Hurkacz, at Wimbledon 2021.

In his first seven matches (same as Alcaraz), Federer won two, against Margnus Larsson and Arnaud Clement, and lost five, including against Yevegeni Kafelnikov and Michael Chang.

In the case of Nadal, his debut on grass took place at Wimbledon in 2003, with a victory against Marija Ančić. In that tournament, the first of Grand Slam career, the Spaniard reached the third round, where he was stopped by Thai Paradorn Srichaphan. In their first seven meetings, Nadal won four, including one against Great Britain’s Lee Childs, and lost three. A worse result than Alcaraz, and the Spaniard ended up playing in five Wimbledon finals and won two titles (2008 and 2010) at the All England Club, and was the second Spaniard, after Andrés Gimen, to win at Queen’s.

Yes, Djokovic and Murray are at their level. The Serbian won five of his first seven matches, between Wimbledon (Juan Mónaco, Guillermo García López, Paul Goldsten and Tommy Robredo) and s’Hertogenbosch (Alex Waske), and lost to Sebastian Grosjean and Jan Hernych, while the Briton, who has been much better on this surface since he played Challengers on it, winning five of his first seven matches between Queen’s (Santiago Ventura and Taylor Dent), Newport (Gregory Carraz) and Wimbledon (George Bastl and Radek Stepanek) , losing to Thomas Johansson and David Nalbandian.

Djokovic has seven titles at Wimbledon, where he has not lost since 2017, while Murray is the first Briton since Fred Perry in 1936 to win at Wimbledon and won two titles there, in 2013 and 2016.

Going back further, Alcaraz’s record also betters that of another grass-court great, Pete Sampras, who won four of his first seven matches.

At only 20 years old, Alcaraz’s career on grass is great, even more so if you realize that his aggressive game adapts well to these circumstances and that he still has enough time to catch the typical grass mechanics. At the moment, attitude and numbers have them.

“I like to see my name on the winners of the most historic tournaments. This tournament is so symbolic that one day I would like to see my name as the winner,” explained the El Palmar man after defeating Arthur Rinderknech on his Queen’s debut.