MELBOURNE – With his usual smile and his hair as short as ever, Carlos Alcaraz goes back and forth on the same idea: relax. Alcaraz’s “2025 model” wants to relax, and he will do so on multiple fronts.
‘This move is quite a bit more relaxed,’ said the Spaniard on Saturday. when talking about the new type of serve with which he will approach the Australian Open and the entire 2025 season.
‘I don’t want the tournaments to be an odyssey,’ he added when asked if he will play fewer tournaments and exhibitions this year so as not to reach the level of wear and tear he complained about in the latter part of 2024.
Why does Alcaraz want to relax, to regain the number one ranking where he is now overtaken by Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev? Not at all: to win Grand Slam titles, which is what matters most to him.
‘My goal is to win Grand Slams and Masters 1000. The ranking is there, but the most important thing for me is to win Grand Slams,’ Alcaraz insisted in Melbourne during a meeting with accredited press.
For the 21-year-old Alcaraz to openly say that what matters most to him is winning Grand Slam titles makes perfect sense. Ever since the ‘Big Three’ of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic made the Grand Slams the sole measure of all things, everything else on the calendar has become a sort of warm-up for the eight weeks when the real big things are played out. No matter how much history and prestige the likes of Monte Carlo, Rome, Queens, Miami or Paris-Bercy may have.
Djokovic, 37 years old and with 24 Grand Slam titles, is the goal of the very ambitious Alcaraz. And he has time, he has years ahead of him, although sport, and tennis in particular, is prodigal when it comes to unexpected and treacherous twists and turns.
That’s also why Alcaraz needs to relax: if he wants a long and successful career he can’t afford to play with the levels of stress and physical wear and tear that led him, for example, to cramp up in the 2023 Roland Garros semi-finals with Djokovic and other important matches.
The 2025 season thus looks set to be a key one. That is why Juan Carlos Ferrero, his head coach, is in Melbourne, unlike in 2024.
The Australian Grand Slam is the only one Alcaraz has not won. Champion of the US Open 2022, Wimbledon 2023 and 2024 and Roland Garros 2024, the Spaniard has the game to win at Melbourne Park. Will he do it this year?
For that, again, he needs to relax. And it all starts with the serve, the one shot where everything depends on the player.
‘We knew I had to change something on serve to be better. Today there are some moments where I feel there’s a problem, that I’m not doing it right. I have to keep thinking about the movement. It will become natural, but right now I still have to think about it’.
What did Alcaraz change in his serve? ‘One of the problems I had in my serve was the rhythm. One thing I had to improve was the accuracy, I had to be more precise with my serve. The new movement is much more relaxed, with a more relaxed wrist, looking for no stop when I get on top, with a more fluid racquet. When you play more relaxed that avoids things that can take a toll on your physique during matches.
Another small change is in his racquet, five grams of added weight that may not seem like much, but it is noticeable.
‘Now that I’ve tried it, I’ve noticed it quite well. I play with quite little weight for what is the professional circuit. It was fantastic. It helps me, the ball comes out more when you hit with more weight. I’m looking forward to playing the match and see how I feel.
Alcaraz, who if he could choose anything in tennis history would take Andre Agassi’s return, is inspired by the mentality of his compatriot Ilia Topuria, UFC featherweight champion, to strengthen his mindset: ‘Seeing him with that confidence before every fight inspired me to have no doubts about myself, know who I am, know what I have and go for it’.
The 2025 season promises to see Alcaraz give up a couple of tournaments so as not to get saturated as he did in previous years.
‘There are debates among players who complain about the schedule and then get (to play) exhibitions,’ Alcaraz said in Melbourne when asked by CLAY.
‘I’ve always said that’s totally different. Taylor Fritz also said it, it’s not the same to be in a nine-day tournament, with the mental and physical demands to the maximum, than to be in a one-day exhibition and entertain people. It’s totally different. I’ll probably cross out some exhibitions, and I’ll probably skip some tournaments. That will depend on how I’m doing physically. What’s clear to me is that I don’t want to play any tournaments where I’m mentally tired, where I go and it’s an ordeal. I want to get to the tournaments, be well and enjoy playing tennis’.
