Carlos Alcaraz gets French Open 'wake-up call' - Henman, Corretja say 'distracted' star 'has to up his level'

Published 29/05/2024 at 16:25 GMT

Carlos Alcaraz continued his bid for a maiden French Open title by beating Jesper De Jong in four sets, but the Spaniard wasn't at his vintage best in an error-strewn display as he continues his return from injury. Eurosport expert Tim Henman said the world No. 3 "has to up his level" to compete for the title, while Alex Corretja thought the match was a "wake-up call" for the two-time Slam winner.

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Carlos Alcaraz needs to “up his level” if he is to bid for the French Open title, says Tim Henman, while Alex Corretja described his challenging second-round win over Jesper De Jong as a “wake-up call".

Alcaraz claimed victory over the Dutch qualifier in four sets, but was guilty of numerous unforced errors and suffered a major dip when he lost the third set 6-2.

The third seed’s preparation for a crack at Roland-Garros glory has been disrupted by an arm injury, and he said he was “feeling weird or afraid to hit every forehand” following his comfortable opening win over J.J. Wolf in Paris.

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Henman believes there are still questions over the 21-year-old’s fitness as he looks to add a third Grand Slam title to his collection.

“We often say it’s great when you can win when not playing at your best,” Henman said on Eurosport’s French Open coverage.

“But for me, there are a few question marks that are probably going to be answered further down the road for Alcaraz, around his arm, how he’s really feeling.

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“Then, when you move on to his attitude and concentration, I felt he was a little distracted. In normal circumstances, when he’s 100% fit and healthy, he’s played matches, he runs away with that in three straight sets.

“He definitely got himself in a spot of bother in the third set. De Jong deserves a lot of credit because he was loving his opportunity out there playing on Philippe Chatrier, he’s come through qualifying, had a good win against Jack Draper in the opening round.

“Suddenly, you get into the fourth set and it could get tricky. Alcaraz will be pleased to get through that, three hours and 10 minutes is plenty of tennis for him, but for sure he’s going to have to up his level if he’s going to progress.”

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Henman pointed to the serving statistics as an obvious area for Alcaraz to work on before he faces 27th seed Sebastian Korda or South Korea’s Soonwoo Kwon in the third round.

“I still think there is a question mark. The first serve percentage (70%) was okay, the first serve points won (64%) is a little lower than we would expect,” Henman explained.

“The first serve average speed (188 km/h) is a little bit low. I think that’s the benchmark.

“We need to see all those numbers improve if Alcaraz is going to continue in the tournament.”

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Alcaraz’s compatriot, two-time Roland-Garros finalist Corretja, analysed a surprisingly poor performance from the world No. 3 on his forehand.

The former US Open and Wimbledon champion was guilty of 26 unforced errors on the forehand side, but Corretja believes that he may be hesitating due to the pain he has suffered recently.

“I think there are two things. First that he hasn’t played too many matches in the clay-court season and that’s maybe taking a little bit of confidence,” Corretja said.

“Then that he’s got some doubts that this pain is going to show up again, which it fortunately didn’t. But it happened in Madrid, he played a very long match and then the next day he felt the pain again.

“I believe that’s why maybe he’s making more mistakes than usual. But if he doesn’t get any pain in the next couple of hours or the next day, I’m very happy that he played three hours on the court, because he needed this rhythm, he didn’t find it during the whole clay-court season. I think it’s a very good sign.”

Alcaraz admits he was in 'trouble' against De Jong at Roland-Garros

Coming into the French Open, Alcaraz had played just one clay-court tournament in Madrid, where he lost to Andrey Rublev in the quarter-finals and aggravated his arm problem.

With that in mind, Corretja believes that a punishing but ultimately successful second-round tie could be good for the youngster in the long run.

“He lost a little bit of rhythm, but he hasn’t played for three hours in a long time,” Alcaraz said.

“I believe he’s going to be fine, but it’s also a wake-up call for him to say you better be careful, because this is only the second round and already three hours on the court, it can be risky. But I take it positively.”