Patrick Mouratoglou marvelled at Carlos Alcaraz’s biggest achievement in 2024.
Many have praised Jannik Sinner’s achievements this season and rightly so, given he has won seven titles, two of which are Grand Slams and sits at the top of the ATP rankings.
But Alcaraz has enjoyed some terrific results this season too, perhaps none more so than winning the French Open and Wimbledon back-to-back.
He became the youngest player in history to achieve the feat and claimed his third and fourth Grand Slam titles in the process.
Carlos Alcaraz entered the French Open with some injury concerns after he withdrew from the Italian Open due to an arm issue. But he gradually worked his way through the tournament before lifting the Coupe des Mousquetaires for the first time.
It was more of the same at Wimbledon, as Alcaraz left his most ruthless performance for Novak Djokovic in the final, as he successfully defended the title at SW19.
Ahead of UTS London in December, Patrick Mouratoglou marvelled at Alcaraz’s achievement and explained what makes it so tough to win both titles in the same season.
“I think what he did is probably the most difficult thing to do in tennis, to win back to back, two tournaments that are opposite in terms of qualities to win them,” the Frenchman told Tennis365.
“At Roland Garros, you need to be high on your legs, sliding, using a lot to spin longer rallies. Then go to Wimbledon, where you have to return big servers on the surface that is, of course, better for counter punchers or players who are much more aggressive with less spin.
“At Wimbledon, you have to be so low on the legs and not slide and wow, those two tournaments are so close in terms of timing, to make those two back to back, is probably one of most difficult things to do in tennis.”
Alcaraz dropped just one set through his first five matches at the French Open, as he claimed wins over J.J Wolf, Jesper De Jong, Sebastian Korda, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Hen then took on his great rival Sinner in the semi-finals, and the World number two came from behind twice to complete a 2-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 win.
He found himself a set down to Alexander Zverev in the final, but Alcaraz showed his fight and stormed back to lose just three games in the last two sets. Alcaraz won 6-3, 2-6, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 and lift the French Open title for the first time.
After overcoming Mark Lajal and Aleksandar Vukic in rounds one and two at Wimbledon, Alcaraz was taken to five sets by Francis Tiafoe in the third round. He went behind on two occasions, but played a great fifth set tiebreak to level the match and storm to victory.
Three successive four set wins over Ugo Humbert, Tommy Paul and Daniil Medvedev followed, before Alcaraz produced one of the best performances of his career to defeat Djokovic in the final for the second straight year.
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