Carlos Alcaraz regains his freedom with exhilarating US Open win

Just one month ago, as the tennis tours swung to the North American hard court season at the beginning of August, Carlos Alcaraz was feeling burdened by his rapid success. The early stages of his rise had seemed so easy – he won big titles for fun, outperformed the likes of Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, and the Spaniard flew up the rankings with a smile on his face. But now he was dealing with the baggage that accompanied his rise. The pressure and expectations, the shiny new target on his back.

While Alcaraz put on a brave face and rolled with the punches during those events, he spoke frankly as he sat with the US Open trophy by his side and looked back on the past few months. “I lost the joy a little bit,” he said. “I felt the pressure. I couldn’t smile on-court which I’m doing in every match, every tournament.”

The pressure he felt was reflected in his results. After taking numerous losses earlier in the summer to young players who were even more motivated to beat him, he fell in his first match in Montreal. In Cincinnati, he was outworked by Cameron Norrie in a tight quarter-final. He arrived in New York with the simple hope of recovering his joy: “I came here just to enjoy, you know? To smile on court, to enjoy playing tennis,” he said.

For Juan Carlos Ferrero, Alcaraz’s coach, a possible solution to regaining his sense of freedom and happiness was simply to execute the style of play that would most evoke those feelings. They spent the days before the US Open working on Alcaraz approaching the net as much as he could, pouncing on short balls and flitting into the forecourt.

It is a reflection of Alcaraz’s astounding, layered talents that he zoomed in on one facet of his style and used it to run through the