Carlos Alcaraz’s young career is exceptional, with three Grand Slam titles already at age 21. But a change planned for next season could disrupt everything.
Winner of his third Grand Slam title a few weeks ago, Carlos Alcaraz went to Wimbledon with the status of defending champion and hoped to retain his title on the grass of the All England Club. Having reached the final, the young Spaniard shone again. But since his title a year ago, many things have changed on the world tennis circuit. Jannik Sinner exploded and took the place of world number one before Wimbledon.
At just 21 years old, Carlos Alcaraz exploded very early on the circuit, winning his first Grand Slam title at 19. To reach maturity, he knew how to surround himself with a large staff headed by his coach, the former Spanish player Juan Carlos Ferrero. However, the Spaniard has kept the same equipment so far, and in particular his racket Babolat.
But that should change. Indeed, in an interview with Bein SportCarlos Alcaraz revealed that he will definitely modify his racket next season. “After this year, we will change something with the racket […] probably the weight. I’m getting older so I can’t play with the same racket I used when I was 15 or 18 so I’m going to have to make some changes.”
The racket is indeed a central element of a tennis player’s equipment. While players often change their racket as their career progresses and especially as technical developments progress, a complete change of equipment generally takes time. Novak Djokovic estimated that he had “needed more than a year” to get used to his equipment in 2009. But this decision had been beneficial and had allowed the Serbian to move up a gear.
In recent years, one of the most iconic racket changes was that of Roger Federer in 2015. Then bothered by back problems, the Swiss decided to abandon his legendary “ProStaff” for a new racket designed by his equipment supplier. Wilson. He too had needed more than a year to get used to this larger head racquet, but the change paid off in 2017 with a thunderous return to the Australian Open.