John McEnroe rates Carlos Alcaraz as the best 20 year old ahead of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic
Carlos Alcaraz better than the Big 3 at his age
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John McEnroe and Carlos Alcaraz (Image via FirstSportz)
Carlos Alcaraz has taken the tennis world by storm. With extreme consistency and tenacity on the tour, he is the one you can put your money on to break the records. Fans have shown their love for the Spaniard. His game has made him attract the attention of the legends of the sport too.
John McEnroe recently in a chat with Eurosport showed his love for the 20-year-old. McEnroe has often shown his admiration for Alcaraz’s game. This was another such instance where he was praising the Spaniard.
“Look at Alcaraz, the guy’s the best 20-year-old I’ve ever seen and at this point, I’d put him above Nadal, Djokovic, Federer, and [Pete] Sampras as the greatest player I’ve ever seen at 20.” McEnroe has gone to the extent of calling Alcaraz the greatest 20-year-old ever. He put the young sensation ahead of players like Djokovic, Nadal, Federer, and Sampras who themselves were champions in their youth.
This is certainly a massive compliment for Alcaraz as not many get to be placed ahead of the legends. To be fair Carlos Alcaraz has earned this praise. His rise to the top in the last 12-15 months has been nothing short of wow. Multiple Master’s 1000 events wins and a Grand Slam under his belt at this age is rare. His challenge would be to continue playing like this without getting into an injury spiral. If he does that, he will break most records existing in the sport.
McEnroe believes tennis needs a new rivalry now
Rivalries are the main attraction of any sport. People love to see 2-3 players go on head-to-head multiple times and try to outclass each other. In tennis too rivalries have been there for many years Sampras-Agassi, Federer-Nadal-Djokovic-Murray have been the main ones in the last 30 years of the sport. However, with the generation mentioned above coming close to calling it a day, fans need a new rivalry to hold the same passion. John McEnroe strongly believes in that too. He himself was in a triangle rivalry with Bjorn Borg and Ivan Lendl.
“Now, you’re hoping, as Djokovic and Nadal wind down, you’re hoping Alcaraz and Rune in particular step up and have a great rivalry because all sports need it. It makes it much more fun and much more interesting. People generally pay more attention.” He believes that Alcaraz and Holger Rune should start this new rivalry to draw the attention of the fans. With Nadal and Djokovic on the back end of their careers, someone needs to step up to bring life to the sport. Can the modern players do that? Time will tell us
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Manan Mehta
(215 Articles Published)