Wimbledon 2023: Carlos Alcaraz warned to reduce number of unforced errors to win SW19

Carlos Alcaraz has been warned by Eurosport expert Mats Wilander that he can’t afford to make as many unforced errors as he did against Alexandre Muller if he’s going to win Wimbledon.

Although it wasn’t vintage tennis from the 20-year-old, his victory was never in doubt, even if he was dragged into a tie-breaker in the second round.

For Wilander, that’s the moment the match Alcaraz began to assert his authority, although he adopted a more cautious approach.

And the seven-time Grand Slam champion believes he may be forced to take fewer risks if he’s to land the SW19 title.

“That is the key moment for me too because suddenly he decided: ‘okay, I’m not missing. I don’t want to go one set all. I’m going to play within myself’”, Wilander said on the tie-breaker.

“And I think, unfortunately, the way forward for him is going to be to play a little more within himself and not take too many risks because you can’t make that many unforced errors if you’re going to win Wimbledon and beat Novak Djokovic along the way.

“But of course, the people love it. He loves it. I love it. So hopefully he doesn’t change too much but keeps winning.”

Asked why Alcaraz was making so many unforced errors, Wilander explained: “I think there is a combination of about four or five things.

“I think, first, Alexandra Muller is a great ball striker and if you let him dictate then he’s going to be very difficult. And I can’t believe he’s just broken into the top 100 because he’s a good player and I think we’re going to see much more from him.

“I saw the stat of Carlos Alcaraz’s forehand – it’s 10 kilometres slower today and 10% less spin rate than the other night when he played Jeremy Chardy under the roof.

“So under the roof tells me that it’s heavier, they’re hitting the ball harder because it doesn’t fly as much. And today, most probably with the heat, the balls are flying, and then he gets a little bit scared and then he doesn’t hit it this hard, but obviously there’s a lot of winners as well.

“So, I think that he has to work on that a little bit. It’s tough when you can’t spin the ball as much as you want to and I think on grass that’s one of the big adjustments that you have to make because it is not as easy I don’t think.”

While Laura Robson agreed that Alcaraz struggled with the conditions, she still enjoyed his performance.

She said: “It’s a really difficult day to play grass court tennis. The ball is flying so much and centre course has been playing differently anyway to the other courts, so he would have had to make some adjustments as we saw during the match where he was changing the forehand. Maybe not varying his base as much as we usually see.

“But I think he did well to just come through that in straight sets in the end because his opponent was kind of dipping away, giving him everything, and there were tricky conditions for sure.

“He’s got one of the best hands in the game. I mean, the touch around the ball especially on the forehand side, the way he can disguise that shot as well. His opponents know that it’s coming but it doesn’t make it any easier to deal with.

“And you can see they’re caught off guard constantly, no matter how many times he hits it in a match – 20 plus times in some of his matches – and yet every time it still seems to catch them by surprise because it’s just the thought that he puts into it, the way he sets up the point before he drops into that shot, and then to be able to mix it up. He’s able to do some volleys, able to come forward when needed.

“I just think he’s got such a great all round game and he was so fun to watch.”

Robson continued: “I still wouldn’t necessarily put him as the favourite for the tournament but I think he can really build that way. I mean, the way that he’s progressed on this surface from two weeks ago at the start of Queen’s to where he is now and the difficult that he’s giving his opponents…

“He’s trying new things all the time and that’s what I really like to see on grass. He has to be able to adapt. The courts by the end of the tournament are going to play so differently to how they’re playing today. So, for him to just deal with it and make the adjustments as they come, I feel like, you never know.”

Alcaraz will face Jason Kubler or 25th seed Nicolas Jarry next.

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