Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz could be the saviour of tennis

There are very few times in any sport when you see a young player and instantly think you are in the presence of greatness, but Carlos Alcaraz is certainly in that bracket.

The Spaniard has been spoken about for the last four years as a star of the future, but I’m not sure people knew just how good he would be and how quickly he would shine at the top table.

At the age of just 16, Alcaraz made his ATP Tour debut after being handed a wildcard for the Rio Open. He made the second round and gave some indication of his flourishing ability.

The pundits really sat up and took notice when Alcaraz became the youngest player, at 17, to make it to the main draw at the Australian Open.

He really announced himself at the top level later in 2021, making the quarter-finals of the US Open and beating Stefanos Tsitsipas en route to the last eight.

Just a year later, the man from Murcia was winning the trophy at Flushing Meadows and beating Marin Cilic, Jannik Sinner and Casper Ruud on the way to the title.

Grass is a completely different surface, though, and many believed it would take him some time, as it did with compatriot Rafael Nadal, to get used to the courts at Wimbledon.

In his first appearance at SW19 Alcaraz made the second round, before going two steps further in 2022 when he lost to big-serving Italian Sinner.

Alcaraz’s victory at Queen's Club this summer showed the progress he had made on grass, but some felt it was still too early for him to win the big one.

For some context, the great Nadal won the Wimbledon title on his fifth appearance at the All England Club. It took five years before Roger Federer lifted the trophy, while Novak Djokovic won at the seventh time of asking.

Alcaraz's Centre Court final victory over the Serb seemed like a changing of the guard and was made all the more impressive by the way he fought back from losing the first set 6-1.

There’s no doubt Djokovic will not back down in a rivalry with Alcaraz, even with a 16-year age gap. But the Spaniard is clearly the future of tennis and has arrived on the scene just when the sport needed him most.

With the recent retirement of Federer, Nadal reportedly due to call it a day imminently and with Djokovic and Andy Murray in the latter stages of their careers, a golden era for men’s tennis is drawing to an end.

The domination of Djokovic saw interest wane and even avid tennis fans were complaining that Grand Slams were becoming a foregone conclusion. After all, a sport without competition is no longer a sport.

There’s no denying the emergence of the likeable Alcaraz is a huge lift for the sport, at just the right time, but it’s also imperative that tennis builds on his appeal and that the other stars raise their games.

Rivalries are what make sport so fascinating and tennis has had its legendary match-ups over the years - Borg v McEnroe, Navratilova v Evert, Serena v Venus, Sampras v Agassi and Federer v Nadal.

There are several candidates to become the main rival to Alcaraz and the future could be exciting, with Sinner, Ruud and Holger Rune all looking like future Grand Slam winners.

From a British perspective, the concern is where is the next male contender coming from?

None of the British men managed to get past the second round of Wimbledon and the nation’s top three players are aged 27, 33 and 36.

At this stage, all hopes look to be pinned on Jack Draper. The big-serving 21-year-old is currently ranked 80th in the world and has been as high as 38 earlier this year.

Although Draper is clearly talented and packs the power needed at the very top level, the argument is that with the finances at the disposal of the LTA, there should be another three or four Brits under the age of 25 in the top 200 of the world rankings.

A shoulder injury kept him out of this year’s Wimbledon but, having made the junior final in 2018, much is expected from the left-hander over the coming years.

We should also give a special mention to teenager Henry Searle, who lifted the junior Wimbledon title this year. The 17-year-old became the first Brit since 1962 to win the SW19 boys title and that could see him fast-tracked to senior events.

But the talk of the tennis world now is Carlos Alcaraz and that's likely to be the case for a long time to come.

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