PARIS — If Carlos Alcaraz is feeling the pressure of being the No. 1 seed at Roland Garros for the first time, he’s not showing it.
“I’m winning all the time because I am smiling,” he said after defeating Taro Daniel in the second round. “And I always said that smiling for me is the key of everything, you know.”
His opponents have noticed — and try to emulate it.
“I owe a lot to Carlitos, because he’s such a breath of fresh air,” No. 5-ranked Stefanos Tsitsipas said after a practice session with Alcaraz. “The fact that just he’s so competitive and he’s always with a smile on his face, and almost so much charisma to him and so much positive energy that he distributes. I think that’s contributed a lot to his growth as a tennis player and his consistency too. … Last year during preseason I was, like, I want to apply that more into my game.”
Alcaraz, 20, has been the friendly assassin here at Roland Garros, breezing into the quarterfinals and smiling all the while. He has learned the importance of getting matches closed out as quickly as possible. Back at the US Open last September, where he won his first Grand Slam, he had to endure three five-set matches in a row on his journey to the final. Here in Paris, he has dropped just one set.
In his fourth-round straight-sets win over Lorenzo Musetti (6-3, 6-2, 6-2) on Sunday, he dropped his first service game, and made six unforced errors to go 2-0 down. He ended up closing out the set 6-3, making just three more unforced errors that set. It’s beautiful efficiency, and you can see the joy he has when he slots away a merciless winner, or after he has forced his way back into a surely doomed rally only to win the point through his blistering pace.
It could be a burden to be appointed the heir apparent to Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. But he has been true to himself. He seemingly doesn’t want to be analyzed in their light.
“There are people who say that I have blows [shots] from Rafa, shots from Djokovic, shots from Federer, because in the end it is what they have been used to seeing for 20 years, right?,” Alcaraz said after his second-round win. “But I do not define myself or have not sought to have anyone’s shots, but I’m simply 100% Alcaraz and…
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