Carlos Alcaraz change that is 'brutal' for his rivals revealed by Andy Roddick

Former world No 1 Andy Roddick has identified a technical change Carlos Alcaraz made to his serve that he feels has led to a key improvement.

Alcaraz claimed the title at the Queen’s Club Championships last week and he was imperious on serve in his final three matches.

The world No 2 did not face a break point in beating Jiri Lehecka in the final and Arthur Rinderknech in the quarter-finals, while he saved the single break point he faced against Roberto Bautista Agut in the semi-finals.

The 22-year-old Spaniard won 92% of his first serve points against Rinderknech, while he hit 18 aces against Lehecka and 15 against Bautista Agut.

The impressive title run and dominant nature of Alcaraz’s serving has strengthened his position as the favourite to win Wimbledon, where he is the two-time reigning champion.

Speaking on the Tennis Channel Live podcast, Roddick gave his verdict on Alcaraz’s serving at the ATP 500 event in London.

“He serves great on grass. This isn’t the first time. He dominated in the Wimbledon final last year against Novak [Djokovic],” said the 2003 US Open winner.

“I kind of touched on it a little bit the other day, but they rounded out the bottom of his swing of his serve during the off-season.

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“And I said he used to go up and down on [it] like a jack-knife right, which meant that that one wide on the deuce side, I don’t think it had as much tail away, right? As much sliced spin on it.

“Now, he can spot serve all four corners, which is just brutal if you’re trying to return, because you know if you leave anything hanging at all in the middle of a court, it’s curtains.

“Him going 117 [miles per hour] on a second [serve] into the body, forcing you to kind of go with that T Rex return where you get the little short arms.

“He’s choosing his spots and pitching a better ball game than he was even a year and a half or two years ago.”

Former world No 9 Coco Vandeweghe also weighed in: “And that’s a crazy factor is that he is getting more confident in his game. Do we think he could get more confident?

“Do we think that he could get more mentally sound than he already was last year or the year before that? No, but here we are, and he is just absolutely blitzing people.

“And then on top of that, he makes so many returns back into play. He can put these guys in so much trouble on their first, on their second. There’s no breathing room when you play Carlos Alcaraz.”

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