Carlos Alcaraz’s flamboyant tennis, along with his early success, has often drawn comparisons with the ‘Big 3.’ He turned pro at the age of just 15, and guess what? Almost four years later, he won his first major title (2022 US Open). Following that, he also became the youngest man and the first male teenager in the Open Era to reach the summit of singles. Currently, the 22-year-old has already put five major titles in his bag. In February 2024, while talking about his ambitions, he said, “I’m a very competitive guy, very ambitious, who always wants to win everything…talking about the Big 3, trying to get closer to them… At the end of the day, I’m a guy with big dreams.” Amid his relentless chase for success, a former tennis pro claims Alcaraz has now started to outclass the ‘Big 3’ in one department. What is it, though?

After successfully lifting the title at Roland Garros, Carlos Alcaraz has managed to keep his winning run intact by getting off to a stellar start at the grass-court swing. With his recent win over Jiri Lehecka in the final of the HSBC Championships, Alcaraz has not only secured his 21st career title (also the fifth of the season) but also extended his winning streak to 18. Having won the Queen’s and Wimbledon twice each now, Alcaraz has now matched his “idol” Rafael Nadal’s record of winning four titles on this surface. If Alcaraz manages to complete his three-peat at SW19, he will then overtake Nadal’s record. Can he do that? We’ll have to wait for a few more days to get this answer!

But before that, Carlos Alcaraz’s incredible transition from clay courts to grass drew massive praise from American tennis bigwigs. Previously, Coco Gauff’s ex-coach, Brad Gilbert, heaped praise on the Spaniard for his recent success. Now, highlighting his victory against Lehecka during the recent episode of the TC Live Podcast, Coco Vandeweghe said, “It’s always going to be a tough matchup for anybody out there to play Carlos Alcaraz. And what amazes me each and every time I watch him transition from hard to clay to grass is how well his game just seamlessly just moves onto the next surface.“

Having said that, Vandeweghe also went on to make a very interesting claim by stating, “I don’t think we’ve seen any player really do that. I mean, we can think of the greats of Roger Federer and Rafa (Rafael Nadal) and even Novak (Djokovic) and they all struggled for a little bit, especially in their years to get that transition from the different surfaces and make their game work. They had to implement other tactics and try and work it out. Sometimes they could, but sometimes they couldn’t. But Carlos Alcaraz…he does it within the first game, first point in the match in his first tournament on grass.“

This statement from a former pro tells us that now Carlos Alcaraz has not only made massive strides to reach the level of the ‘Big 3,’ but also he’s doing wonders to chase incredible records across various surfaces. But his rise to stardom had been predicted by the ‘Big 3’ on various occasions in the past. In 2023, while speaking about Alcaraz, Roger Federer said, “Alcaraz is great. I mean, look, he’s still young and everything that he has achieved is fantastic, and also not just on clay or just on hard, you know.“ 

Earlier this year, Rafael Nadal gave an interview with Eurosport, and during that interview, he said, “He’s (Alcaraz) a big candidate to win a lot of Grand Slams and become the number one player in the world.” A month later, even Novak Djokovic highly praised this youngster, saying, “With the results at this age, it can be said that he has accomplished more than any of us (Djokovic, Federer, and Nadal) did at that age.” Djokovic believes that Carlos Alcaraz has every ingredient to make history and become the greatest in the sport. Can he fulfill these vast expectations in the tennis world?

Time will tell! But he’s definitely pretty close to achieving yet another milestone at SW19 this year. What did he say after his win at the Queen’s Club Championship, though?

Carlos Alcaraz speaks about the difficulties of making a transition from clay to grass

Carlos Alcaraz is currently on a 12-match winning streak on grass. With this win against Lehecka, he became the first player to do the Roland Garros and Queen’s double since Rafael Nadal (in 2008). His record on grass is currently 29-3 with a 91% win rate, i.e., also the best any players have ever achieved on this surface, including tennis greats Roger Federer, Bjorn Borg, and Novak Djokovic.

After this win, Alcaraz spoke about how special it was for him to win the title. But having said that, he also spoke about how difficult it is to make these transitions from one surface to the other. Although he claims clay court is his favorite surface at the moment, Alcaraz feels “at home” every time he plays on grass.

But talking about this transition, he added, “Well, yeah, it’s really, yeah, I’m going to say it’s really complicated, switch from clay to grass in just a few days, because that’s the time I had before the tournament began. Just two days of practicing, and then I had to compete here. So I came here with no expectations at all. I just came here with a goal to play two, three matches, try to feel great on grass moving, and, you know, give myself the feedback of what I have to improve, what I have to do better.“

From having the least expectations to going home with the title in his hand, that’s exactly what separates Carlos Alcaraz from others. But when it came to revealing his secret to success, Alcaraz claimed that his vacation in Ibiza following the French Open triumph helped him a lot to come back on the court with more energy and hunger. Do you think he can keep this hunger intact and complete his three-peat at Wimbledon this year?