Andy Roddick has explained why he feels Carlos Alcaraz’s 2024 season was “kind of weird” as he identified “areas of improvement” for the Spaniard.
Alcaraz ended 2024 as the world No 3, behind Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev, after amassing a 54-13 (80.6%) record.
The peak of Alcaraz’s campaign came in the summer as he claimed his maiden French Open crown and defended his Wimbledon title – triumphs that took his Grand Slam tally to four.
The 21-year-old also won the Indian Wells Masters and the China Open, while he secured a silver medal at the Paris Olympics.
Alcaraz won all three of his matches with Sinner in 2024, a hugely impressive feat given the Italian suffered just six defeats in a dominant year.
On an episode of the Served with Andy Roddick podcast, Roddick reflected on Alcaraz’s previous season ahead of the 2025 campaign.
“It’s kind of weird because he is this all world talent who won two majors to bring his tally to four by the time he is 21, along with [Masters] 1000s and all this other stuff,” the 2003 US Open champion said.
But we forget that he didn’t win a tournament between Wimbledon and Indian Wells, and then he missed the entire clay-court season and then he lost to Botic van de Zandschulp at the US Open. He then beat Sinner over in Asia and then loses a couple of weird ones at the end of the [year].
“What went right in 2024? I won majors! I won my second Wimbledon title.
“And what’s the areas of improvement? Being healthy and doing it all the time and winning 70-plus matches like [Jannik] Sinner did this year (2024).”
Former world No 21 Steve Johnson recently suggested that Alcaraz’s relatively light schedule in 2024 was strategic.
“I feel like Carlos Alcaraz is doing his schedule strictly to win Slams,” the four-time ATP singles titlist said.
“He’s missing Masters series. He’s skipping Madrid or he’s not playing Montreal. I think his only goal is to win Slams. I don’t think he cares about winning the [ATP] 250 [tournaments].
“I think he’s only doing things to win Slams. He wants to get to that 20 number. That’s what it feels like because he’s missing some big events that Rafa never missed in his career.”
