Carlos Alcaraz’s range of talents is extraordinary. His forehand and backhand are both among the best in the sport; his serve, earlier a relative weak point, is now one of the strongest; and Andy Roddick has suggested he may become the tennis’s best ever volleyer. But the shot that is inarguably the best in the world is his drop shot.
The trouble for Alcaraz is that his one true rival, Jannik Sinner, might be working it out.
During Sunday’s Monte Carlo final, Sinner increasingly looked more comfortable when Alcaraz sprung the surprise – or what’s normally a surprise.
Monte Carlo drop shots - first set
Alcaraz is generally the better player on clay. He lost just one match on the surface last year. The Big Two have split the last nine Grand Slams but Alcaraz has won back-to-back French Opens.
The Monte Carlo Masters 1000 was the first big clay tournament Sinner has won. His only previous clay title was the Croatia Open 250, where he beat Alcaraz in the final.
Sunday’s was a poor match by the Big Two’s amazing standards, severely impacted by the wind, which they hadn’t been used to during the tournament.
Alcaraz’s first drop shot of the match was reached by the supremely speedy Sinner, who gave Alcaraz a chance to put the next ball away but the Spaniard hit it into the net. And in the fourth game, Sinner pelted successive backhands crosscourt and Alcaraz played his second drop shot of the match, hitting the net.
But then Alcaraz found his touch. In the fifth game (1:24), his drop shot was beautifully disguised and a clean winner with Sinner trying to recover to the centre of the court after a defensive backhand.
Two games later (1:42), Alcaraz played a mismeasured drop volley, which he got away with, hitting a volley winner on his next shot.
In the next point (2:17), Alcaraz hit his best drop shot yet, curling into the tramlines with a ton of backspin too.
It was looking like drop shots may be Alcaraz’s best ploy as he hit 8 backhand unforced errors in the first 8 games alone. The wind was throwing both players off, with an unusual double fault from Sinner.
In the ninth game (2:53), Alcaraz hit another drop shot winner, changing his forehand grip extremely late (below) and disguising the shot brilliantly.
But then Sinner appeared to expect the drop shot. He again showed his speed to reach one in the 10th game.
In the first set tiebreak (3:38), the Italian reached another, with Alcaraz’s disguise not as perfect and Sinner running before he made contact with the ball (below).
Sinner’s first serve percentage improved when he most needed it, having dipped to the 30s in the first set before he found rhythm. He was much the better player in the tiebreak, despite a shocking miss at 6-4. Alcaraz then double faulted to give away the set. Alcaraz’s drop shots were the only thing closest to his usual standard.
Second set
In the first game of the second set, Alcaraz’s hit a similar swerving drop volley (4:10) to the one he tried earlier, and again put away the next ball.
Alcaraz was starting to look more himself in the first three games (4:36), showing fantastic movement and stretch to pass Sinner and break for 2-1. That prompted Sky Sports commentator Jamie Murray to say, “That’s why he’s the daddy in my book.”
But at 2-1, 40-30, two unforced errors gave Sinner break point. Alcaraz survived that scare – he played a drop shot on game point with Sinner already running. Sinner made an unforced error and showed another negative reaction after muttering to his team in the first set. Neither of them were really at it by their standards (though probably would have had little trouble against most of the other top 100 players in the world).
At 3-2, 15-30, Sinner was quick to react to an inside-out forehand drop shot and got to break point.
Later in that game on another break point (5:55), Alcaraz played an extremely ambitious serve-and-drop-shot combination (even by his standards). The wide kick serve was brillaint but he left himself no margin for error with a backhand drop shot. Another unforced error and Sinner broke back.
In the last few games Sinner looked more like his usual self and Alcaraz seemed concerningly negative. Since parting ways with Juan Carlos Ferrero, he has looked to his team less often during matches. Alcaraz seemed to benefit from their constant encouragement, and would use the conversations to further pump himself up. Everybody loved Alcaraz’s smile – during some matches it seemed the commentators would talk about that as much as his tennis – but Alcaraz is smiling less now.
Sinner has plenty of reasons to smile. He’s currently the best of the world on supposedly his weakest surface. Sinner wasn’t at his best on Sunday, but his path to the trophy was fairly stress-free. He made light work of world No 3 Alexander Zverev in a 6-1, 6-4 semi-final that lasted less than an hour and a half. The quarter-final against now-No 5 Felix Auger-Aliassime was barely longer. Sinner’s back to world No 1.
Top image from Tennis TV.