Carlos Alcaraz faced Tommy Paul in his most recent match at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships, and he played well despite not feeling entirely comfortable with the conditions.
The American had been playing superb tennis all week before their match. He had won the Cinch Championships and generally looked very confident in his game this year on grass.
Paula won the opening set 7-5, but then Alcaraz stormed back into the match and won it in four sets. The Spaniard looked better as the match went on, and that was because he was getting used to the conditions.
He played on Court No. 1, which is quite different from the Centre Court, where he played almost all his matches until that point, except for one. When asked about the difference, Alcaraz admitted that the Centre Court was in better condition than Number One, which didn’t make him that comfortable.
“Obviously it’s different conditions when the roof is open and when the roof is closed. I felt that the difference between playing on Centre Court and Court No. 1, you know, the grass, is different. It’s more sand on CCourt No. 1 than Centre Court. More holes.”
“There were more matches on court one than on the Centre Court, so I had to adapt to that. I wasn’t comfortable at all on Court No. 1 with the conditions on it, but I had to adapt my game on it. I tried to play my best tennis on it and in
the end, I found it. It was difficult to find it.”
Alcaraz won’t be playing on Court No. 1 again this year, so he won’t have to worry about the condition too much. He prefers to play matches without the roof, but that will largely depend on the weather.
With how the draw looks right now, he could possibly play a rematch from last year’s final. If he wins his match, and Novak Djokovic does the same, the two will meet in the final.
