Carlos Alcaraz has only played 27 top-level matches on grass, but Pat Cash believes he has seen enough to declare him “the best player I have ever seen on grass”.
Aged just 21, Alcaraz is already a two-time Wimbledon winner as he won back-to-back titles the past two years, defeating seven-time champion Novak Djokovic in both finals, while he also won the Queen’s Club Championship last year.
With three full grass-court seasons under his belt, the Spaniard has a 24–3 (89%) win-loss record on the surface and, although it is still early days, it stacks up brilliantly to the greatest grass-court players of all time.
Eight-time Wimbledon winner Roger Federer had a 192–29 (86.9%) record on the surface while John McEnroe was 121–20 (85.8) and Djokovic is currently 120-20 (85.7%).
Cash – who won Wimbledon in 1987 – believes Alcaraz is top of the list when it comes to the best grass-court players ever.
“He hasn’t got a weakness. I almost think he is one of the best … the best player I have ever seen on grass at his best,” he told Sky Sports Tennis.
The Australian emphasised: “Ever seen and I am talking about ever seen.
“Because he is a young guy, he has taken the best of Rafa, the best of Federer and he has been able to adapt that. Without these great players, he wouldn’t have had that, and he admits that. He said without Rafa ‘I wouldn’t be where I am’, but he has just taken the best of everything and somehow at the age of 21 has put it all together.
“I have never seen anything like that.”
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British player Liam Broady was with Cash in the studio when he made the “big statement” and, although the 30-year-old is impressed with Alcaraz, he wouldn’t go as far as declaring him the greatest just yet.
“I understand what you are saying. He has the sheer power that Rafa had, but he has the lightness to his game and that sort of aura that Fed had,” he said. “He’s like a ballet dancer but with that ability to shift like only Rafa could.
“He has the strength from way back in the court like Rafa had on a clay court to play way back, but he can also play up in the court the same way that Roger used to with the SABR.
“He is probably one of the few players in the sport who can take your breath away with some of the shots that he hits and you think ‘how has he even done that’.
“He is a player who can not only do it once in a tournament, he can do it four or five times in a match.”
Cash added: “We will see how he goes throughout his career, he obviously doesn’t have that longevity yet, but he certainly got the makings of one of the all-time greats like Federer, Nadal, Djokovic with the way he is going.”
