The arrival of Carlos Alcaraz,  the 18 year-old teenager from El Palamar, Murcia, Spain. One year ago,  his ranking was 133,  this week he is knocking on the door of the top 10 at 11 in the world.  He has been on the ATP Tour for just over one year. Last week he became the third youngest male player behind Rafael Nadal and Michael Chang to win an ATP Masters 1000 title at the Miami Open beating Casper Ruud 7-5, 6-4 in the final.

There have been many great young players in recent seasons to come along and knock on the door of the big three in Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer only to have fallen away. But something is different about this young Spaniard who turns 19 next month. He posses an all court game with potent power on both the Forehand and Backhand sides, as well as being “Speedy Gonzales” and probably the quickest mover on tour both forwards and sideways with a willingness to come to the net. He has great feel and finesse with an exquisite drop shot and a wonderful ‘”knifed” volley to finish points off. Oh yes,  one more thing,  he looks very safe under the overhead put-away. What a scary thought,  Alcaraz is not yet the finished product yet and only going to improve with his hard work ethic under the astute guidance of coach and former world Number 1, Carlos Ferrero.

Carlos Alcaraz has been described by Annabel Croft as a cross between Pete Sampras and Roger Federer,  two fairly decent players!  A Grand Slam winner in the making? Definitely and I can’t wait to see him on the grass at Wimbledon where he could do really well let alone on the clay at Roland Garros.