Carlos Alcaraz defeated Lorenzo Musetti to claim a victory at the Monte Carlo Masters on Sunday as he took home a second title for 2025.
Alcaraz had been out of the winner’s enclosure since February, when he was successful in Rotterdam, and this win serves to highlight that he’s in good form ahead of the French Open, which takes place next month.
The 21-year-old will be looking to defend his Roland Garros crown that he won for the first time last year. With four Grand Slam titles to his name already, he might already be eyeing up some of the big names on the list of major honours across history.
Alcaraz will naturally attract comparisons with Rafael Nadal. The Spanish legend hung up his racket and retired last year following a failed attempt at winning the Davis Cup alongside the current world number two.
Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesAndy Roddick claims Carlos Alcaraz has a problem that Rafael Nadal didn’t at 21
Roddick is the latest pundit to compare Alcaraz and Nadal. Discussion on The Tennis Channel Live Podcast turned to the Spanish duo following the youngster’s win in Monte Carlo over the weekend.
The one-time US Open champion believes Alcaraz has a bit of a problem to solve and it’s one that Nadal didn’t encounter when he was a young whipper snapper looking to make waves in the early stages of his career.
He said: “The problem with being able to hit every single shot on Earth is that sometimes you try and hit every single shot on Earth!
“With Rafa at an early age, he didn’t have the amount of options that Carlos Alcaraz has at 21 years old. That doesn’t mean – before you all scream – that Rafa didn’t develop them later, he certainly did. But his stock game at 20 or 21 years old was that I am going to be a pain in the butt, hit that forehand into your backhand and go into super grind mode. Novak had a set play, Rafa had a set play. He has all of these options.
“Learning when and how to disperse them is an ongoing process. When we struggle, I almost feel like it’s a matter of indecision on what type of Carlos to be that day, when knuckleheads like me only really had one option.”
Carlos Alcaraz stats vs Lorenzo Musetti
Alcaraz may still have some rough edges to polish, but it’s still quite remarkable what he’s managed to achieve at this early stage of his career as a professional player.
The Spaniard is going to go and conquer the sport and the only real discussion should be centred around exactly how many Grand Slam titles he will have won once his career comes to an end.
Yesterday, he blew Musetti away in the second two sets. Despite losing the first set, Alcaraz knew what he needed to do in order to regroup and won the final two sets to the loss of just a single game.
Alcaraz will now head to Barcelona for his next endeavour. The clay-court season is one which the player always looks forward to and given his current form, it’s not hard to understand why.