Tennis great Mats Wilander believes Carlos Alcaraz enters the 2024 ATP Finals with “a lot of doubt”, but he is “not worried” about the Spanish star.
The former world No 1 expects Alcaraz to be “immediately fired up” by facing elite opposition in Turin.
Alcaraz will make his second ATP Finals appearance this year after he reached the semi-finals on his debut at the 2023 edition of the event.
The 21-year-old also qualified for the year-end championships in 2022, but he was forced to withdraw due to injury.
The world No 3 will face Casper Ruud in his first match, while he is also in the same group as Alexander Zverev and Andrey Rublev. He is seeking his first indoor title.
In an interview with Eurosport, Wilander assessed Alcaraz’s season and argued the four-time Grand Slam winner is more dangerous against top-ranked players.
“There’s a lot of doubt with Carlos Alcaraz,” the seven-time major champion said.
“Even though he won two majors in the French Open and Wimbledon, the final of the Olympics is not that bad, even though everybody’s trying to make it out as ‘he didn’t win the Olympics’. That would have been an amazing year.
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“Why I like Carlos Alcaraz in this situation is that, in the last few weeks, he’s lost to players that you scratch your head and go, ‘whoa, how does he lose to this player?’
“He doesn’t have to play these players [in Turin]. He only has to play guys that are ranked in the top eight in the world. I think immediately Alcaraz will get fired up.
“Somehow, even though you’re No 3 in the world and one of the most electric, promising, fan-friendly [players], everything that Alcaraz has to deal with, I think he gets fired up and has not much to lose when he plays against the top eight in the world.
“Compared to playing against a guy who’s ranked No 50 in the world, he can’t really get that excited. So I’m not worried about Alcaraz because his opposition is the best in the world.”
The Swede backed Alcaraz to progress from his group in Turin, but he identified a potential semi-final showdown with world No 1 Jannik Sinner as a “problem” for the Spaniard.
“No one puts more pressure on Carlos Alcaraz’s service games than Sasha Zverev,” Wilander said. “And I think it has to do, obviously, with Zverev’s serve. It has to do with him making a lot of returns.
“It has to do with playing indoors, where the short drop shots of Alcaraz skid a little bit, and Zverev can get to them.
“So Alcaraz doesn’t really have that much opportunity to use them, even though he has opportunities. I think Alcaraz gets stressed when someone serves well.
“But at the same time, Alcaraz needs to win two out of three matches to make the semis. He doesn’t need to win all three matches.
“With the year that Alcaraz has had, which is amazing in one way but also inconsistent in another way, give him three matches in a round robin and the semi-finals for him is there.
“He’s going to get there and he’ll be so ready after playing three top eight guys. It doesn’t matter what their names are. And it would not matter if he loses to Zverev. The only problem for him then is he might play Sinner in the semis.”
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