Alcaraz's significant task ahead after returning from his injury

Carlos Alcaraz has returned from his wrist injury as if no time has passed. Despite being 4 and a half months away from the circuit due to a wrist injury, the Spanish fighter managed to reach the quarterfinals of the US Open, falling in the fifth set against Ben Shelton, and at the ATP Tokyo, he has reached the final to try to defend the title he won last year. However, the renowned coach Rick Macci has pointed out the weakness of the player from Murcia since his return.

Slowly, Alcaraz is regaining confidence in all his shots, although the former coach of Serena Williams and Andy Murray has highlighted that his serve is causing him too many problems. In his recent matches, Carlos has struggled in this area, conceding his serve several times, something that Macci does not necessarily see as a negative fact, as it means he has room for improvement and an extra reason to keep pushing to return to 100% in all his aspects.

"The Spanish magician has been having problems with his first serve since his return, but I view it as something positive. Adversity creates a domino effect in other areas to find a solution. He has to push himself even harder. He needs to play longer rallies without concessions. But, above all, he has to manage his frustration mentally and that feeling: I know I can serve better," tweeted the renowned coach.

A new challenge for Alcaraz

In fact, according to Rick, "this negative aspect of seeing a low percentage of first serves and suffering more breaks leads him to seek a way to reach a mental level never experienced before to try to save the situation. Always remember: from failure comes success.”

After such a long break, it’s normal for Carlos to still be a bit green in some areas, and it has been his serve that has suffered the most. In the Tokyo semifinals against Munar, he suffered 3 breaks of serve, and had to save too many break points. Shapovalov also broke his serve 3 times before retiring just after starting the second set, Matteo Arnaldi broke him once, and Alex Michelsen even 5 times.

Going back to the US Open, it’s also worth noting that all his opponents were able to break his serve at least once. Roman Safiullin, Jaime Faria, Yibing Wu, Tommy Paul, and Ben Shelton were also able to find the cracks in the Spanish player’s serve, so he will have to put on his work clothes and improve in that area to suffer less in the upcoming tournaments. On hard courts, the serve is very important to avoid setbacks, and in the remaining indoor hard court European tour to finish the year even more so, although I’m sure this is something Alcaraz himself has in mind.

This is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, La gran tarea pendiente de Alcaraz tras volver de su lesión