Red-hot Alcaraz’s late season blues faces the US Open test

bombay: He put up often grin and coruscate on margaret court, yet this is usually the time of the season we’ve seen Carlos Alcaraz do some un-Alcaraz things. Like weep uncontrollably after not winning a big final for a change. Or smash his racquet uncharacteristically for a rare on-court show of frustration.

Or, more glaringly over the last couple of years, let his otherwise hot streak of blazing through matches and tournaments lose steam.

Alcaraz has arrived at the same juncture this year on a similar march, winning four of his last five tournaments including the Cincinnati Masters this week. The question is whether the five-time Grand Slam champion can keep it rolling towards the back end of the season, beginning with the US Open where he clinched his first Slam in 2022.

In the two editions since, Alcaraz has crashed out in the semi-finals (2023) and the second round (2024) in New York. It’s part of the Spaniard’s trend of tailing off during the season’s final third after having a ball across the first two.

In 2022, the season in which the Spaniard showed the first significant signs of his greatness chasing potential, Alcaraz won four titles leading into Wimbledon held in June-July. Across the next three months he would hold the solitary trophy, which happened to be the biggest of them all. From an overall impressive season win-loss record of 57-13, the split before and after Wimbledon went from an incredible 35-5 to an inconsistent 22-8.

Even if that season’s slide could be put down to a teen taking time to soak in his Slam shining moment, the late season dip continued over the next two years.

His remarkable 65-12 record in 2023 still carried a striking contrast – 47-4 until Wimbledon and 18-8 after it, with all of his six titles coming in the first six months. The 54-13 split for last year was 33-6 and 21-7, with just one of his four tournament wins coming in the last three months.

Growing from strength to strength since his Slam-winning teen days, Alcaraz, now 22, is aware of this tail-off tendency. And of his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero’s words from 2023 of him having to learn that the season runs from January to November and doesn’t end in June or September.

“That couldn’t be more true,” Alcaraz had said then. “Maybe I struggled to handle the last part of the season.”

Part of those struggles, as Alcaraz acknowledged during the 2024 season-ending ATP Finals, is mental fatigue. It was most apparent last year when, after the high of winning a first French Open and defending the Wimbledon title to the low of losing the Paris Olympics final, he came into the US Open running on fumes. The wheels came off in a second-round loss to Botic van de Zandschulp for his earliest Slam exit since 2021.

After his group stage ouster from last year’s ATP Finals, Alcaraz said it’s nearly impossible to feel fresh during the back end of the season, “but I have to play my best tennis even if I’m mentally tired”.

That’s what great players of the Big Three club did for large periods season after season. That’s what Jannik Sinner, Alcaraz’s biggest rival of his generation, did last year when he won five of his six tournaments to end the season, including the US Open, ATP Finals and Davis Cup Final.

“One of my goals is to reach this part of the year feeling fresher,” Alcaraz said at the 2024 ATP Finals. “I was better than last year, but not good enough.”

Alcaraz appears even better this year in that regard. And the tournament that gave us those un-Alcaraz moments over the last couple of years best highlights that contrast.

In 2023, Alcaraz couldn’t stop crying after losing an epic final to Novak Djokovic. In 2024, Alcaraz couldn’t stop himself from breaking his racquet in a second-round shock against Gael Monfils. In 2025, Alcaraz couldn’t be stopped from winning his first Cincinnati Masters title; certainly not by an illness-struck Sinner in the final.

In a change from the last two years, the world No.2 will enter the US Open having competed in just one tournament after his Wimbledon final defeat. In 2023 he also played in Toronto while 2024 had the Olympics along the way.

It was also handy that his Cincinnati semi-final (Alexander Zverev was physically hampered in his 6-4, 6-3 loss) and final (Sinner retired while trailing 5-0) were against opponents who weren’t 100% and did not take too much out of the Spaniard’s tank.

“I’m feeling great. Have a lot of confidence right now,” Alcaraz said, looking ahead to the US Open after his Cincinnati title.

“Last year it was disappointing the level that I played there. This year, I really want to show my best tennis.”

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