𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Alcaraz’s return game is not typically praised as one of his best attributes but make no mistake, he’s generationally great at it.

He does have an odd glitch on the second serve return, often wafting them long on his backhand for no apparent reason (I asked him about this in press last week but didn’t get a direct answer).

But on the first serve return, Alcaraz excels at neutralizing his opponent’s advantage immediately after any serve that’s less than perfect, and at getting serves back into play that would have aced many of his peers.

He’s already scraped multiple excellent Zverev serves back, and done enough with the returns that Zverev made errors thereafter.

Zverev is accustomed to cruising on serve, but Alcaraz has now worked his way to break point in three consecutive return games.