A lot can happen in a span of 12 months. Carlos Alcaraz will vouch for that.
Around this time last year, the Spaniard, not yet 20, had barely begun to process his maiden Grand Slam title, one that came in 2022 in Queens, New York—one that made him the youngest No. 1 in the history of the ATP rankings when global fame came calling.
He’d rise up larger than life over the Barcelona skyline; a building-sized billboard nearly blocking out Antoni Gaudi’s spiraling Sagrada Família. He’d add "underwear model" to his skillset, now a leading man for a premium American fashion house, starring in a black-and-white ad campaign. There was the usual media-pull, of course, and all the expectations and pressures that come with territory.
While the Spaniard has lamented the loss of his anonymity, saying that he can no longer go out for a stroll without fans forcing a scrum on the sidewalk, he seems to be at peace with it all. And, bad news for his ATP colleagues, in the midst of acclimating himself to his new life, he claims to have become a wiser, more skilled player.
“I think I’m more mature now,” Alcaraz said this week in Flushing Meadows, where he set out in defense of a Grand Slam crown for the first time. “I grew up a lot since last year. I feel like I’m a totally different player. Doesn’t matter that last year I got my first Grand Slam, I won my first semifinal, final of a Grand Slam. I feel like I’m more mature. I deal better with the pressure in those kinds of moments. I feel like I’m different—different person and different player.”
Different person, different player, yes, but still human. We saw that on Friday night in a closed-roof Arthur Ashe Stadium, where the top seed suffered a 7-6(3), 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 defeat at the hands of 2021 champ Daniil Medvedev. Though the capacity crowd did its darndest to spur him on, Alcaraz never quite got his teeth into the match, his drop shots rarely effective, his unforced errors often untimely (he would finish with 38 in all in the three-hour, 19-minute long match). And free points? He would finish without a single ace.
Alcaraz, now a two-time major titlist, having added Wimbledon to his haul earlier this year, says he’s reconsidering his self-assessment after the setback against Medvedev.
“These kinds of matches can happen, even if I feel like a different player, more mature,” he said. “He played really, really great, a great match. I couldn’t find any solutions. Right now, I am a better player to find solutions when the match is not going in the right direction. But after this match, I’m going to change my mind: I’m not mature enough to handle these kinds of matches, so I have to learn about it.”
How long will it take to digest the loss?
“I don’t think I’m going to think about this loss for a long time,” he said. “Of course, I have to learn about it. I want to be better. These kinds of matches help you a lot to be better and grow up in these situations.”
Everyone is talking about the budding Alcaraz vs. Novak Djokovic rivalry. However, his matchup with Medvedev has become compelling, too. Their head-to-head now stands at 2-2. Alcaraz had claimed their two most recent encounters, both coming this year in the Indian Wells final (6-3, 6-2) and the Wimbledon semifinals (6-3, 6-3, 6-3). The 27-year-old Medvedev sure flipped the script on Friday.
“I’m sure we’re going to play more matches in final rounds of big tournaments, so it’s going to be a good rivalry,” Alcaraz said. “Every match that we’ve played, I think we’ve shown great points, great battles. He played with more speed on his shots. I think the running forehand was great today. Probably, with the slice in the previous matches helped me a lot to find my own game, but today I couldn’t. He found great direction with his shots, no mistakes, great serve. I have to learn about it and find solutions.”
