There was a time when Carlos Alcaraz seemed to be in a hurry. At 23, he had already accumulated seven Grand Slam titles, established himself alongside Jannik Sinner as one of the defining players of his generation, and built a career that looked to be moving at a pace normally associated with much older champions. There was little reason to believe he needed to slow down.
As things turned out, Alcaraz’s body made the decision for him. A right wrist injury kept him out for more than four months. And in missing Roland Garros and Wimbledon, he was compelled to confront what victories hitherto enabled him to postpone: A long career cannot be built simply by playing more tennis. His return at Flushing Meadows thus carried greater significance; he was beyond merely mounting a title defense. The question was not whether he could still beat the best players in the world; it was whether he could trek to the court anew without reverting to the same habits that had his body giving way in the first place. So far, the answer has been encouraging; he reached the quarterfinals the other day by beating Tommy Paul, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4, in the process extending his Grand Slam streak of triumphs to 18 matches and reaching the same stage in the United States Open for the fifth time in six appearances.
All things considered, it would be an understatement to argue that Alcaraz’s progression has been most impressive. He entered New York not having played a competitive set-to since April. And, understandably, there was some caution in his first forays. He had to rediscover timing, movement and, perhaps most importantly, confidence in his wrist. He dropped only one set in his first three outings before producing his most authoritative performance against Paul. He broke the American four times, applied constant pressure in returns, and finished with flourish. It’s one thing to return from injury, and quite another to be in championship form from the get-go.
Needless to say, all the success has Alcaraz thinking beyond the tournament in front of him. He has spoken about the need to take breaks of one or two months at a time, not because he has lost his appetite for competition but because he wants to extend his career by another 10 or 15 years. It’s a significant change in perspective for him, especially since he spent the first part of his career being measured almost entirely by his win total. His decision to step away from the group of leading players pushing major tournament organizers for a larger share of revenues also fits into the broader shift. He is now apparently more concerned with having sufficient time away from tennis than with remaining involved in the prolonged dispute over prize-money distribution.
It would be easy to interpret the decision as Alcaraz becoming less ambitious when it is, in fact, the opposite. There’s a difference between wanting to win everything and wanting to remain capable of winning for a very long time. The sport’s annals are replete with champions who discovered too late that the physical demands of the modern game eventually exact a toll. Roger Federer learned to manage his schedule as his career matured. Novak Djokovic became increasingly selective about where he spent his energy. Rafael Nadal spent years balancing the desire to compete with the necessity of protecting a body that had already endured considerable punishment.
It may ultimately become one of the most important lessons of Alcaraz’s career. He no longer needs to prove that he belongs among the greats; his record speaks for itself. What remains is determining how long he wants to stay at the top. The wrist injury forced him to step away before he was ready, but it may also have given him what another trophy could not: an appreciation that his calling is bigger than the next tournament. At 23, it might yet be the most mature development in his game.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and human resources management, corporate communications, and business development.